ABSTRACT

 Throughout our lives, as children or adults, each event we encounter is a mixture of positive and negative aspects. Depending on our perspective, various characteristics of objects or situations become salient. The tendency to attend, use and learn more from negative features of stimuli (i.e., negativity bias) can constitute a risk factor for emotional disorders, especially mood and anxiety. The evolutionary perspective is that weighting negative information more heavily than the positive has served as an adaptive mechanism throughout evolution. Nowadays, giving far more importance to negative features of stimuli than to positive, manifesting a high sensitivity to threat and using biased interpretations of the world can seriously alter optimal functioning of individuals. Given the existing theoretical framework for understanding the mechanisms through which cognitive biasesinfluence vulnerability to emotional disorders and the empirical data regarding their assessment and modification,we highlight the need to investigate such cognitive mechanisms in regard to emotionally relevant novel stimuli that parallel an ecological environment. We conclude our paper by discussing the practical implications and future directions that such research may provide.

KEYWORDS: cognitive bias, emotional vulnerability, anxiety, depression, risk

PAGES:229-242