Visual Approach/Avoidance by the Self Task

Rougier, Marine; Michelet, Dominique; Ric, François; Batailler, Cédric; Smeding, Annique; Aubé, Benoîte

doi:10.1037/t75929-000

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…In a seminal study, Solarz showed that reaction times were faster when participants pulled cards with pleasant words toward themselves and when they pushed cards with unpleasant words away from themselves rather than the reverse (Solarz, 1960). Since then, this effect suggesting an automatic tendency to approach positively-valued concepts and avoid negatively-valued concepts has been replicated numerous times with various types of approach-avoidance tasks and across numerous contexts (Chen & Bargh, 1999; Wentura et al, 2000; De Houwer et al, 2001; Duckworth et al, 2002; Vaes et al, 2003; Rotteveel & Phaf, 2004; Markman & Brendl, 2005; Alexopoulos & Ric, 2007; Rinck & Becker, 2007; Paladino & Castelli, 2008; Seibt et al, 2008; Saraiva et al, 2013; Rougier et al, 2018). As approach-avoidance tendencies play a key role in adapting a broad range of behaviors to the perception of one’s context (Lang, 1995), this construct has attracted considerable attention in physical activity.…”

Section: Automatic Attitudes and Health Behaviormentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Conceptual congruence can also be revealed by manipulating the physical (e.g., pulling or pushing a joystick) or virtual direction (e.g., pressing keyboard keys moving an avatar on a screen; selecting the word “approach”) of the response used to react to the stimulus of interest (Krieglmeyer & Deutsch, 2010; Rougier et al, 2018). While generic approach-avoidance tendencies have been studied using questionnaires at the personality (e.g., approach-avoidance temperaments) (Elliott et al, 2002) and goal level (approach-avoidance goals) (Carver & White, 1994; Elliott, 1999), the reaction-time difference in these approach-avoidance tasks captures a more automatic aspect of approach-avoidance tendencies, a specific dimension of automatic attitude (Sheeran et al, 2013).…”

Section: Automatic Attitudes and Health Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Automatic approach-avoidance tendency toward physical activity, sedentary, and neutral stimuli as a function of age, explicit affective attitude, and intention to be active

Farajzadeh

Goubran

Beehler

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Using computerized reaction-time tasks assessing automatic attitudes, studies have shown that healthy young adults have faster reaction times when approaching physical activity stimuli than when avoiding them. The opposite has been observed for sedentary stimuli. However, it is unclear whether these results hold across the lifespan and when error rates and a possible generic approach-avoidance tendency are accounted for. Here, reaction times and errors in online approach-avoidance tasks of 130 participants aged 21 to 77 years were analyzed using mixed-effects models. Automatic approach-avoidance tendencies were tested using physical activity, sedentary, and neutral stimuli. Explicit attitudes toward physical activity and intention to be physically active were self-reported. Results showed faster reaction times and fewer errors when approaching compared to avoiding physical activity stimuli before 45 years of age and faster reactions to avoiding compared to approaching sedentary stimuli after this age. These results suggest a tendency to approach physical activity stimuli in younger adults and a tendency to avoid sedentary stimuli older adults. However, reaction time and error results revealed a generic approach tendency in early adulthood and a generic avoidance tendency in late adulthood. When accounting for these generic tendencies, results no longer showed evidence of an effect of age on approach-avoidance tendencies toward physical activity stimuli but kept suggesting a greater tendency (i.e., fewer errors) to avoid sedentary stimuli in older adults. Both reaction-time and error results supported a tendency to approach physical activity stimuli and to avoid sedentary stimuli across age, when further accounting for sex-gender, level of physical activity, body mass index, and chronic health condition. Finally, exploratory analyses showed that approach-avoidance tendencies toward physical activity and sedentary stimuli were associated with explicit attitudes toward physical activity but showed no evidence of an association with the intention to be physically active.

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