Why do people expose themselves to certain emotional stimuli and avoid others? We propose that what people want to feel is linked to attitudes toward emotions. In 3 studies, we show that individuals with more (vs. less) negative attitudes toward an emotion were more (vs. less) likely to avoid stimuli that induce that emotion. People who evaluated disgust (or joy) less favorably than others were less likely to expose themselves to disgusting (or joyful) pictures (Study 1). These links were emotion-specific and could not be explained by differences in state or trait emotion (Study 2) or in emotional reactivity (Study 3). We were further able to show that the choice of emotion-inducing stimuli affected emotional experience in a congruent manner. People with more (vs. less) negative attitudes toward disgust (or sadness) were more likely to avoid disgusting (or sad) stimuli, resulting in more intense experiences of disgust (or sadness; Study 2). Finally, people with more negative attitudes toward disgust chose to avoid more disgusting stimuli, whether attitudes were assessed explicitly or implicitly (Study 3). These findings suggest that people avoid stimuli that induce emotions that they evaluate less favorably, even when such evaluations are not consciously accessible. (PsycINFO Database Record

Identity formation is a key developmental task in adolescence. Although many adolescents in modern societies face issues of identity, there are substantial individual differences in identity exploration and commitment. Little is known about the origins of these individual differences. The current study investigated the genetic and environmental contributions to identity formation. In total, 571 11-year-old twins (85 monozygotic complete pairs and 176 dizygotic complete pairs) reported on their identity formation, using the Dimensions of Identity Development Scale (DIDS; Luyckx, Schwartz, Berzonsky, et al., 2008), as part of the Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins (LIST; Avinun & Knafo, 2013). Multidimensional scaling analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported the presence of all 5 dimensions at this young age: commitment making, exploration in-breadth, ruminative exploration, identification with commitment, and exploration in-depth. However, a model where exploration in-depth was divided into two subscales had a better fit to the data. Monozygotic twins were more similar to each other than dizygotic twins on all dimensions, except for one of the exploration in-depth subscales, supporting the idea that individual differences in various dimensions of identity formation are at least partially influenced by genetics (18-45%). For these dimensions, the rest of the variance was explained by nonshared environment effects (55-82%). Only one of the exploration in-depth subscales, that is, the tendency to explore commitments through discussion with others, showed evidence for the influence of the environment shared by twins (21%) but no genetic effect. Implications of the findings regarding the role of genetics and environment to identity formation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Individuals differ in their willingness to engage with disgusting stimuli (e.g., dirty diapers). We propose that such differences are associated with attitudes towards disgust. Specifically, we predicted that people with less negative attitudes towards disgust (i.e., those who evaluate disgust less negatively) would be more willing to engage with disgusting stimuli. We asked participants to engage with disgusting stimuli in the laboratory and used two measures that assess behavioural and affective or cognitive components of attitudes towards disgust. As predicted, less negative attitudes towards disgust were associated with greater engagement with disgusting stimuli, above and beyond the current experience of disgust and the tendency to experience disgust. These findings stress the importance of attitudes towards emotions in understanding emotion-relevant behaviour.

Despite the importance of self‐control for well‐being and adjustment, its development from early childhood to early adolescence has been relatively understudied. We addressed the development of mother‐reported self‐control in what is likely the largest and longest longitudinal twin study of the topic to this day (N = 1889 individual children with data from at least one of five waves: ages 3, 5, 6.5, 8–9 and 11 years). We examined rank‐order change in self‐control from early childhood to early adolescence, genetic and environmental contributions to variance in the trait and differential developmental trajectories. The relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to change and stability was also examined. Results point at middle childhood as a period of potential transition and change. During this period the rank‐order stability of self‐control increases, heritability rates substantially rise, and a cross‐over occurs in two of the self‐control trajectories. Nonadditive genetic effects contribute to both stability and change in self‐control while the nonshared environment contributes mostly to change, with no effect for the shared environment. Our findings suggest that new genetic factors, that emerge around age 6.5 and whose effect on self‐control is carried on along development, may partially account for changes in self‐control around late middle childhood, and explain the growing stability in the trait approaching early adolescence. We discuss the implications of the special role of middle childhood for self‐control development.

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