title: Self-affirmation breaks the link between the behavioral inhibition system and the threat-potentiated startle response.
abstract: Reflecting on core personal values is a common means of self-affirmation that can change how a person responds to threatening events. Specifically, self-affirmation has been found to reduce psychological defenses against self-esteem threats. The current research examined the effects of self-affirmation on more basic reflexive mechanisms of motivation and emotion. The startle-eyeblink response is a defensive reflex that can be elicited by loud bursts of noise and is potentiated in the presence of threatening stimuli. Individual differences in anxiety-related traits, including behavioral inhibition-system (BIS) sensitivity, predict the magnitude of threat-potentiated startle responses, such that higher BIS sensitivity corresponds with more intense responses to threatening stimuli. The current experiment (N = 100) tested the hypothesis that affirming a core personal value breaks the link between BIS sensitivity and threat responsiveness. We measured individual differences in BIS, manipulated the opportunity for self-affirmation, and assessed eyeblink responses to startle probes during negative, neutral, and positive emotional picture viewing. In the no-affirmation condition, BIS sensitivity predicted the magnitude of startle-eyeblink responses during negative pictures, consistent with previous research. In the self-affirmation condition, the relationship between BIS sensitivity and threat-potentiated startle responding was eliminated. This finding suggests that self-affirmation's effects extend beyond self-esteem defenses to influence basic defensive reflexes in threat-prone individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Adrienne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Crowell
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Page-Gould
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Brandon J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Schmeichel
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001767:Blinking; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D013216:Reflex, Startle; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior