@article{ZilligPauliWieseretal.2023, author = {Zillig, Anna-Lena and Pauli, Paul and Wieser, Matthias and Reicherts, Philipp}, title = {Better safe than sorry? - On the influence of learned safety on pain perception}, series = {PloS One}, volume = {18}, journal = {PloS One}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0289047}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-349905}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The experience of threat was found to result—mostly—in increased pain, however it is still unclear whether the exact opposite, namely the feeling of safety may lead to a reduction of pain. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two between-subject experiments (N = 94; N = 87), investigating whether learned safety relative to a neutral control condition can reduce pain, while threat should lead to increased pain compared to a neutral condition. Therefore, participants first underwent either threat or safety conditioning, before entering an identical test phase, where the previously conditioned threat or safety cue and a newly introduced visual cue were presented simultaneously with heat pain stimuli. Methodological changes were performed in experiment 2 to prevent safety extinction and to facilitate conditioning in the first place: We included additional verbal instructions, increased the maximum length of the ISI and raised CS-US contingency in the threat group from 50\% to 75\%. In addition to pain ratings and ratings of the visual cues (threat, safety, arousal, valence, and contingency), in both experiments, we collected heart rate and skin conductance. Analysis of the cue ratings during acquisition indicate successful threat and safety induction, however results of the test phase, when also heat pain was administered, demonstrate rapid safety extinction in both experiments. Results suggest rather small modulation of subjective and physiological pain responses following threat or safety cues relative to the neutral condition. However, exploratory analysis revealed reduced pain ratings in later trials of the experiment in the safety group compared to the threat group in both studies, suggesting different temporal dynamics for threat and safety learning and extinction, respectively. Perspective: The present results demonstrate the challenge to maintain safety in the presence of acute pain and suggest more research on the interaction of affective learning mechanism and pain processing.}, language = {en} } @article{KrishnaRiedMeixner2021, author = {Krishna, Anand and Ried, Sophia and Meixner, Marie}, title = {State-trait interactions in regulatory focus determine impulse buying behavior}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {16}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {7}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0253634}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-261206}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Little research has focused on motivational state-trait interactions to explain impulse buying. Although the trait chronic regulatory focus has been linked to impulse buying, no evidence yet exists for an effect of situational regulatory focus and no research has examined whether the fit of chronic and situational regulatory focus can influence impulse buying with actual consumptive consequences rather than purchase intentions. Two laboratory experiments (total N = 250) manipulated situational regulatory focus before providing opportunities for impulse buying. In addition, cognitive constraint was manipulated as a potential boundary condition for regulatory focus effects. Situational promotion focus increased impulse buying relative to situational prevention focus in participants with strong chronic promotion, consistent with regulatory fit theory and independently of cognitive constraint. Surprisingly, situational promotion focus also increased impulse buying in participants with strong chronic prevention, but only under low cognitive constraint. These results may be explained by diverging mediating cognitive processes for promotion vs. prevention focus' effect on impulse buying. Future research must focus more on combining relevant states and traits in predicting consumer behavior. Marketing implications are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{MunozCentifantiStickleThomasetal.2021, author = {Mu{\~n}oz Centifanti, Luna C. and Stickle, Timothy R. and Thomas, Jamila and Falc{\´o}n, Amanda and Thomson, Nicholas D. and Gamer, Matthias}, title = {Reflexive Gaze Shifts and Fear Recognition Deficits in Children with Callous-Unemotional Traits and Impulsivity/Conduct Problems}, series = {Brain Sciences}, volume = {11}, journal = {Brain Sciences}, number = {10}, issn = {2076-3425}, doi = {10.3390/brainsci11101342}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248536}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The ability to efficiently recognize the emotions on others' faces is something that most of us take for granted. Children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits and impulsivity/conduct problems (ICP), such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, have been previously described as being "fear blind". This is also associated with looking less at the eye regions of fearful faces, which are highly diagnostic. Previous attempts to intervene into emotion recognition strategies have not had lasting effects on participants' fear recognition abilities. Here we present both (a) additional evidence that there is a two-part causal chain, from personality traits to face recognition strategies using the eyes, then from strategies to rates of recognizing fear in others; and (b) a pilot intervention that had persistent effects for weeks after the end of instruction. Further, the intervention led to more change in those with the highest CU traits. This both clarifies the specific mechanisms linking personality to emotion recognition and shows that the process is fundamentally malleable. It is possible that such training could promote empathy and reduce the rates of antisocial behavior in specific populations in the future.}, language = {en} } @article{LangePauli2019, author = {Lange, Bastian and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Social anxiety changes the way we move—A social approach-avoidance task in a virtual reality CAVE system}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {14}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {12}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0226805}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200528}, pages = {e0226805}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Investigating approach-avoidance behavior regarding affective stimuli is important in broadening the understanding of one of the most common psychiatric disorders, social anxiety disorder. Many studies in this field rely on approach-avoidance tasks, which mainly assess hand movements, or interpersonal distance measures, which return inconsistent results and lack ecological validity. Therefore, the present study introduces a virtual reality task, looking at avoidance parameters (movement time and speed, distance to social stimulus, gaze behavior) during whole-body movements. These complex movements represent the most ecologically valid form of approach and avoidance behavior. These are at the core of complex and natural social behavior. With this newly developed task, the present study examined whether high socially anxious individuals differ in avoidance behavior when bypassing another person, here virtual humans with neutral and angry facial expressions. Results showed that virtual bystanders displaying angry facial expressions were generally avoided by all participants. In addition, high socially anxious participants generally displayed enhanced avoidance behavior towards virtual people, but no specifically exaggerated avoidance behavior towards virtual people with a negative facial expression. The newly developed virtual reality task proved to be an ecological valid tool for research on complex approach-avoidance behavior in social situations. The first results revealed that whole body approach-avoidance behavior relative to passive bystanders is modulated by their emotional facial expressions and that social anxiety generally amplifies such avoidance.}, language = {en} } @article{RieplMusselOsinskyetal.2016, author = {Riepl, Korbinian and Mussel, Patrick and Osinsky, Roman and Hewig, Johannes}, title = {Influences of State and Trait Affect on Behavior, Feedback-Related Negativity, and P3b in the Ultimatum Game}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0146358}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-147386}, pages = {e0146358}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The present study investigates how different emotions can alter social bargaining behavior. An important paradigm to study social bargaining is the Ultimatum Game. There, a proposer gets a pot of money and has to offer part of it to a responder. If the responder accepts, both players get the money as proposed by the proposer. If he rejects, none of the players gets anything. Rational choice models would predict that responders accept all offers above 0. However, evidence shows that responders typically reject a large proportion of all unfair offers. We analyzed participants' behavior when they played the Ultimatum Game as responders and simultaneously collected electroencephalogram data in order to quantify the feedback-related negativity and P3b components. We induced state affect (momentarily emotions unrelated to the task) via short movie clips and measured trait affect (longer-lasting emotional dispositions) via questionnaires. State happiness led to increased acceptance rates of very unfair offers. Regarding neurophysiology, we found that unfair offers elicited larger feedback-related negativity amplitudes than fair offers. Additionally, an interaction of state and trait affect occurred: high trait negative affect (subsuming a variety of aversive mood states) led to increased feedback-related negativity amplitudes when participants were in an angry mood, but not if they currently experienced fear or happiness. We discuss that increased rumination might be responsible for this result, which might not occur, however, when people experience happiness or fear. Apart from that, we found that fair offers elicited larger P3b components than unfair offers, which might reflect increased pleasure in response to fair offers. Moreover, high trait negative affect was associated with decreased P3b amplitudes, potentially reflecting decreased motivation to engage in activities. We discuss implications of our results in the light of theories and research on depression and anxiety.}, language = {en} } @article{MusselGoeritzHewig2013, author = {Mussel, Patrick and G{\"o}ritz, Anja S. and Hewig, Johannes}, title = {The value of a smile: Facial expression affects ultimatum-game responses}, series = {Judgment and Decision Making}, volume = {8}, journal = {Judgment and Decision Making}, number = {3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-129639}, pages = {381-385}, year = {2013}, abstract = {In social interaction, the facial expression of an opponent contains information that may influence the interaction. We asked whether facial expression affects decision-making in the ultimatum game. In this two-person game, the proposer divides a sum of money into two parts, one for each player, and then the responder decides whether to accept the offer or reject it. Rejection means that neither player gets any money. Results of a large-sample study support our hypothesis that offers from proposers with a smiling facial expression are more often accepted, compared to a neutral facial expression. Moreover, we found lower acceptance rates for offers from proposers with an angry facial expression.}, language = {en} } @article{KopfDreslerReichertsetal.2013, author = {Kopf, Juliane and Dresler, Thomas and Reicherts, Philipp and Herrmann, Martin J. and Reif, Andreas}, title = {The Effect of Emotional Content on Brain Activation and the Late Positive Potential in a Word n-back Task}, series = {PLoS ONE}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0075598}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-96687}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Introduction There is mounting evidence for the influence of emotional content on working memory performance. This is particularly important in light of the emotion processing that needs to take place when emotional content interferes with executive functions. In this study, we used emotional words of different valence but with similar arousal levels in an n-back task. Methods We examined the effects on activation in the prefrontal cortex by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and on the late positive potential (LPP). FNIRS and LPP data were examined in 30 healthy subjects. Results Behavioral results show an influence of valence on the error rate depending on the difficulty of the task: more errors were made when the valence was negative and the task difficult. Brain activation was dependent both on the difficulty of the task and on the valence: negative valence of a word diminished the increase in activation, whereas positive valence did not influence the increase in activation, while difficulty levels increased. The LPP also differentiated between the different valences, and in addition was influenced by the task difficulty, the more difficult the task, the less differentiation could be observed. Conclusions Summarized, this study shows the influence of valence on a verbal working memory task. When a word contained a negative valence, the emotional content seemed to take precedence in contrast to words containing a positive valence. Working memory and emotion processing sites seemed to overlap and compete for resources even when words are carriers of the emotional content.}, language = {en} } @article{StrackPauliWeyers, author = {Strack, Fritz and Pauli, Paul and Weyers, Peter}, title = {Editorial: Emotion and Behavior}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {313}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00313}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190177}, abstract = {No abstract available.}, language = {en} }