How state anxiety and attentional bias interact with each other: The moderating effect of cognitive appraisal

Abstract

In the present study, we conducted four experiments to explore how state anxiety influences attentional bias, and vice versa, as well as the moderating effect of cognitive appraisal in this relationship. Experiment 1 focused on whether induced state anxiety could lead to attentional bias. Experiment 2 explored the influence of attentional bias on state anxiety under stressful conditions. Experiments 3 and 4 investigated the moderating effect of cognitive appraisal on the interaction between state anxiety and attentional bias. Our main findings were that state anxiety directly leads to attentional bias, whereas negative attentional bias increases state anxiety under stressful conditions. Moreover, cognitive appraisal moderates the influence of attentional bias on state anxiety, but not the reverse influence. The implications of our study are that it provides empirical evidence for the interaction between state anxiety and attentional bias, and also that it offers insight into the different moderating effects of cognitive appraisal on the relationship.