Trait anxiety and reasoning under uncertainty.pdfVIP

/locate/paid Personality and Individual Differences 43 (2007) 827–838Trait anxiety and reasoning under uncertainty Luca Bensi *, Fiorella Giusberti Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy Received 1 June 2006; received in revised form 20 December 2006; accepted 2 February 2007 Available online 26 March 2007Abstract We explored the relationship between trait anxiety and reasoning under conditions of uncertainty. In our opinion, high trait anxious individuals (HTA) could have an implicit goal of uncertainty reduction. Accord- ing to this, we predicted that in reasoning tasks HTA individuals would try to shorten the length of uncer- tain states by gathering less evidence prior to deciding, compared to low trait anxious ones (LTA). In Study 1 we employed several probabilistic reasoning tasks to examine the amount of data requested before mak- ing a decision. In Study 2, we investigated how evidence is weighed up and how hypotheses are tested. Results confirmed our prediction: HTA individuals gathered fewer pieces of evidence, thus jumping to con- clusions, compared to LTA individuals. Groups did not differ in their reasoning if evidence was at their disposal from the start. Furthermore, the HTA group jumped to conclusions and provided incorrect answers in the hypothesis-testing task. We suggest that HTA individuals are particularly concerned with reducing uncertainty, even at the expense of correctness.  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Trait anxiety; Reasoning; Uncertainty; Information-gathering; Jump to conclusions style1. Introduction Anxiety can be divided into two categories: state anxiety and trait anxiety (Spielberger, 1972). State anxiety is defined as a person’s current level of anxiety, which can be modulated by situa-0191-8869/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.02.007 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 051 2091835; fax: +39 051 243086. E-ma