Anxiety and security-focused goal-pursuit: An integrative approach

Demonstrations of the distinct effects of different types of anxiety have illustrated the unique psychological consequences of different threats. However, these demonstrations may have somewhat obscured commonalities that exist across different types of anxiety. Two functions of anxiety are to increase (a) caution and vigilance for the presence of threats and (b) distancing behaviors that allow one to avoid such threats (Maner, 2009). We thus hypothesized that different types of anxiety might each be associated with increased vigilance and distancing, and furthermore, that these common outcomes would be driven by a shared motivational mechanism: self-regulatory processes associated with pursuing safety and security (i.e., prevention). Across Studies 1-5, different types of anxiety were measured (including trait, uncertainty, and social anxiety) or manipulated (specifically via reliving experiences of concern over contamination, mortality salience, judgmental uncertainty, social rejection, attachment anxiety, or creating current experiences of fear of dangerous animals, uncertainty, or social anxiety). Subsequent measures were then taken of prevention-focused goal-pursuit as well as vigilance and distancing - specifically, vigilance in the form of narrowed attention on a digit-span task (Study 3), distancing in the form of disparaging opinions that did not match one's worldview (Study 4), and vigilance for and distancing from a social interaction (Studies 2 and 5). Across studies 1-5, results indicated that (a) anxiety increased prevention-focused goal-pursuit, (b) anxiety increased vigilance and distancing, and (c) this effect of anxiety on vigilance and distancing was mediated by prevention-focused goal-pursuit. Study 6 provided further evidence for this mediation by activating growth motivations and attenuating the effect of anxiety on vigilance and distancing.