Approach, avoidance, and affect: a meta-analysis of approach-avoidance tendencies in manual reaction time tasks
Open accessAbstract
Approach action tendencies toward positive stimuli and avoidance tendencies from negative stimuli are widely seen to foster survival. Many studies have shown that approach and avoidance arm movements are facilitated by positive and negative affect, respectively. There is considerable debate whether positively and negatively valenced stimuli prime approach and avoidance movements directly (i.e., immediate, unintentional, implicit, automatic, and stimulus-based), or indirectly (i.e., after conscious or non-conscious interpretation of the situation). The direction and size of these effects were often found to depend on the instructions referring to the stimulus object or the self, and on explicit vs. implicit stimulus evaluation. We present a meta-analysis of 29 studies included for their use of strongly positive and negative stimuli, with 81 effect sizes derived solely from the means and standard deviations (combined N = 1538), to examine the automaticity of the link between affective information processing and approach and avoidance, and to test whether it depends on instruction, type of approach-avoidance task, and stimulus type. Results show a significant small to medium-sized effect after correction for publication bias. The strongest arguments for an indirect link between affect and approach-avoidance were the absence of evidence for an effect with implicit evaluation, and the opposite directions of the effect with self and object-related interpretations. The link appears to be influenced by conscious or non-conscious intentions to deal with affective stimuli.
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Explicit instructions in AAT trainings are associated with greater effect sizes than instructions that attempt to conceal the purpose of the training.
“These explicit instructions were based on meta-analytic findings that explicit instructions in AAT trainings are associated with greater effect sizes than instructions that attempt to conceal the purpose of the training by asking participants to focus on neutral aspects of the stimuli (e.g., push/pull based on the color or shape of the stimuli; Phaf et al., 2014).”
From Evaluating Mechanisms: Mapping Weekly Dynamics between Experiential Avoidance and SAD Symptoms (2021) · cites this paper as Phaf et al., 2014
The Introduction (Instruction; page unavailable) defines implicit instructions as responses to task-irrelevant features such as background color. The Results (Moderator analyses of both affects; page unavailable) find smaller effect sizes with implicit than explicit instructions. However, the meta-analysis concerns approach–avoidance effects in manual reaction-time tasks, not the effectiveness of AAT training or whether instructions conceal a training purpose. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Phaf, R. H., Mohr, S. E., Rotteveel, M., & Wicherts, J. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Tilburg University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Phaf, R. Hans
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2014-05-08
- Volume
- 5
- Pages
- 378-378
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4021119
- OpenAlex
- W2092608429
- Cited by
- 326
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 1.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research portal (Tilburg University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- approach-avoidance tendencies, emotional valence, positive and negative stimuli, manual reaction time, implicit evaluation, explicit evaluation, automaticity, affective priming
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