A Preliminary Study of Anxiety, Negative Affect, Experiential Avoidance, and Delaying of Aversive Events

The current study examined the role of anxiety, negative affect, and trait experiential avoidance in choices between immediate and delayed aversive outcomes. Undergraduate students (N = 34) completed self-report measures and a laboratory-based delay-discounting task in which they made choices between electric shocks delivered immediately versus shocks delivered after various time delays. The hypotheses that higher levels of anxiety, greater negative affectivity, and greater tendency to engage in experiential avoidance would predict choices of an objectively worse delayed aversive stimulus over an immediate (but less severe) aversive stimulus were supported. These findings may have implications for interventions that target behavioural and experiential avoidance in anxiety.