Fight, Not Flight! Avoidant Behavior Strengthens Attentional Shift Toward Threat Stimuli During Anxiety

Abstract

Abstract Attentional systems prioritize threat-related stimuli, and this tendency increases with heightened anxiety. The detrimental effects of anxiety on perceptual and motor performance may result in part from this automatic mechanism in which attention is predominantly biased toward threat stimuli, that is, attentional bias. Understanding the relationship between attentional bias and motor control systems is expected to aid in the development of methods to cope with anxiety in athletic situations. With this in mind, the present study investigated how the difference in behavioral goals affects attentional control against threat-related stimuli during induced anxiety. Participants performed a visual probe task, with half responding to the probe target in hit mode and half in avoidance mode. Anxiety levels were manipulated using a threat-of-shock method. Threatening conditions increased the degree of attentional bias toward negative information compared to safe conditions for the avoidance action goal but had no effect on the hit action goal. The differences in fight-or-flight behavioral goals, represented by hit or avoidant actions, were found to interact with state anxiety, resulting in the different degrees of attentional bias toward threat stimuli. Avoidance behavior may strengthen the relationship between attentional bias and anxiety. These findings suggest a hypothesis that when anxiety increases, deliberate efforts to avoid threatening stimuli would rather worsen perceptual and motor performance.