Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Dev Sci. 2021 Mar;24(2):e13012. doi: 10.1111/desc.13012. Epub 2020 Aug 6.
Although common sense suggests that we are motivated to pursue positive and avoid negative experiences, previous research shows that people regularly seek out negative experiences. In the current study, we characterized this tendency from childhood to young adulthood. Due to the known increases in risky behavior and sensation seeking in adolescence, we hypothesized that adolescents would show an increased engagement with negatively valenced stimuli compared to children and adults. Participants aged 4-25 (N = 192) completed a behavioral task assessing motivation to engage with negative, positive, and neutral images. On each trial, participants viewed two small images and selected one to view at a larger size for up to 10s. Trials were organized into three valence conditions: negative versus positive images (matched on arousal), negative versus neutral images, and positive versus neutral images. Although participants chose positive images more than neutral or negative images, participants selected negative images frequently, even when given a positive (28% of trials) or neutral (42% of trials) alternative. Contrary to expectations, the tendency to choose negative images was highest in early childhood and decreased linearly with increasing age, and the tendency to choose positive images increased linearly with age. These results provide insight into how motivation to engage with emotional stimuli varies across age. It is possible that the novelty and rarity of negative experiences drives children to pursue these stimuli. Alternatively, children may find negative images less aversive, which would caution against assuming that these stimuli elicit the same motivational states in individuals of all ages.
虽然常识表明我们有追求积极体验和避免消极体验的动机，但先前的研究表明，人们经常会主动寻求消极体验。在当前的研究中，我们从儿童期到青年期描述了这种倾向。由于青春期的风险行为和寻求刺激的行为会增加，我们假设与儿童和成年人相比，青少年会更多地参与到负性情绪刺激中。参与者年龄在 4-25 岁之间（N=192），完成了一项评估对负性、正性和中性图像参与动机的行为任务。在每次试验中，参与者观看两个小图像，并选择一个以较大尺寸查看，最长可达 10 秒。试验分为三种效价条件：负性图像与正性图像（与唤醒度匹配）、负性图像与中性图像、正性图像与中性图像。尽管参与者选择正性图像多于中性或负性图像，但他们还是经常选择负性图像，即使有正性（28%的试验）或中性（42%的试验）的替代选择。与预期相反，选择负性图像的趋势在幼儿期最高，随着年龄的增长呈线性下降，而选择正性图像的趋势则随着年龄的增长呈线性上升。这些结果提供了对情绪刺激参与动机如何随年龄变化的深入了解。可能是负性体验的新奇性和稀有性促使儿童追求这些刺激。或者，儿童可能发现负性图像的不那么令人厌恶，这就需要谨慎地假设这些刺激在所有年龄段的个体中引发相同的动机状态。
