Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35513397›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2022

Anxiety increases information-seeking in response to large changes.

Caroline J Charpentier, Irene Cogliati Dezza, Valentina Vellani, Laura K Globig, Maria Gädeke, Tali Sharot

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
27citing papers in PubMed
13.0field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

27 citing papers in PubMed, 71 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Addressing Altered Anticipation as a Transdiagnostic Target Through Computational Psychiatry.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025
    Review
  6. Review
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Computational Mechanisms of Information-Seeking in Anxiety.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025
    Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

Caroline J Charpentier *Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. ccharpen@caltech.edu.
Irene Cogliati Dezza *Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
Valentina Vellani *Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
Laura K GlobigDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, WC1H 0AP, UK.
Maria GädekeDivision of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, 53113, Bonn, Germany.
Tali SharotDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, WC1H 0AP, UK. t.sharot@ucl.ac.uk.
Prostate Cancer Research · GBCalifornia Institute of Technology · USUniversity College London · GBUniversity of Bonn · DE

Funding

Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust 214268/Z/18/ZWellcome Trust 218642/Z/19/Z)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Seeking information when anxious may help reduce the aversive feeling of uncertainty and guide decision-making. If information is negative or confusing, however, this may increase anxiety further. Information gathered under anxiety can thus be beneficial and/or damaging. Here, we examine whether anxiety leads to a general increase in information-seeking, or rather to changes in the type of information and/or situations in which it is sought. In two controlled laboratory studies, we show that both trait anxiety and induced anxiety lead to a selective alteration in information-seeking. In particular, anxiety did not enhance the general tendency to seek information, nor did it alter the valence of the information gathered. Rather, anxiety amplified the tendency to seek information more in response to large changes in the environment. This was true even when the cause of the anxiety was not directly related to the information sought. As anxious individuals have been shown to have problems learning in changing environments, greater information-seeking in such environments may be an adaptive compensatory mechanism.

Indexed as

Anxiety DisordersInformation Seeking BehaviorAnxietyEmotionsHumansUncertainty

Identifiers

PMID35513397
PMCPMC9070976
OpenAlexW4229035135

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.