The role of anxiety and anxiety-related goals in influencing evaluative conditioning: Does the person-situation fit matter?

Recent research showed that personality traits, specifically Neuroticism and Anxiety, moderate Evaluative Conditioning (EC) effects – the change in the evaluation of a stimulus (conditioned stimulus) due to its previous pairings with a positively- or negatively-valenced stimulus (unconditioned stimulus). Whereas past research is only correlational and focused on anxiety as a trait, the present research aimed at manipulating anxiety. In two studies, we manipulated participants' anxiety-related goals (e.g., avoiding feeling uncomfortable) before taking part in an EC procedure. We also measured anxiety as a trait, as a state, and as chronic and momentary anxiety-related goals. Multilevel analyses revealed that the fit (i.e., the compatibility) between state anxiety (measured) and the state-relevant contextual conditions (manipulated) – that is, the person-situation fit – has a crucial role in EC. More specifically, highly anxious and highly relaxed (low anxious) people have larger EC effects in, respectively, anxious and relaxed conditions.