Negative Interpretation Bias Connects to Real-World Daily Affect: A Multistudy Approach

Negative interpretation bias, the tendency to appraise ambiguous stimuli as threatening, shapes our emotional lives. Various laboratory tasks, which differ in stimuli features and task procedures, can quantify negative interpretation bias. However, it is unknown whether these tasks globally predict individual differences in real-world negative (NA) and positive (PA) affect. Across two studies, we tested whether different lab-based negative interpretation bias tasks predict daily NA and PA, measured via mobile phone across months. To quantify negative interpretation bias, Study 1 (N = 69) used a verbal, self-referential task whereas Study 2 (N = 110) used a perceptual, emotional image task with faces and scenes. Across tasks, negative interpretation bias was linked to heightened daily NA. However, only negative interpretation bias in response to ambiguous faces was related to decreased daily PA. These results illustrate the ecological validity of negative interpretation bias tasks and highlight converging and unique relationships between distinct tasks and naturalistic emotion

Affect instability links task-based negativity bias and variability in depressive symptoms

Negativity biases, appraising ambiguous stimuli as negatively valenced, are thought to confer risk for clinical depression by manifesting in maladaptive real-world emotional patterns. One potential daily emotional pattern that may link negativity bias with depression is affective instability—extreme fluctuations in affect over time that may result from evaluating ambiguous ecological information as negative. To test this, we assessed links between a laboratory-based negativity bias task, day-to-day experience sampling of emotion across an academic semester, and self-reported symptoms of depression in 95 young adults. Negativity bias was operationalized as the degree to which ambiguous emotional faces were rated negatively. Greater negativity bias in the laboratory predicted greater negative and positive affect instability throughout the semester. Critically, negativity bias was linked with symptoms of depression through affect instability. These results highlight how individual differences in information processing may be connected to real-world emotional profiles and risk for psychopathology

Negative interpretation bias connects to real-world daily affect: A multistudy approach

Negative interpretation bias, the tendency to appraise ambiguous stimuli as threatening, shapes our emotional lives. Various laboratory tasks, which differ in stimuli features and task procedures, can quantify negative interpretation bias. However, it is unknown whether these tasks globally predict individual differences in real-world negative (NA) and positive (PA) affect. Across two studies, we tested whether different lab-based negative interpretation bias tasks predict daily NA and PA, measured via mobile phone across months. To quantify negative interpretation bias, Study 1 (= 69) used a verbal, self-referential task whereas Study 2 (= 110) used a perceptual, emotional image task with faces and scenes. Across tasks, negative interpretation bias was linked to heightened daily NA. However, only negative interpretation bias in response to ambiguous faces was related to decreased daily PA. These results illustrate the ecological validity of negative interpretation bias tasks and highlight converging and unique relationships between distinct tasks and naturalistic emotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)