Citation

Gibbons JA, Toscano A, Kofron S, Rothwell CC, Lee SA, Ritchie TD, Walker WR. Conscious. Cogn. 2013; 22(4): 1340-1351.

Affiliation

Christopher Newport University, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Newport News, VA 23606, United States. Electronic address: jgibbons@cnu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.concog.2013.09.004

PMID

24091020

Abstract

The Fading Affect Bias (FAB) is the tendency for unpleasant emotions to fade more over time than pleasant emotions (Walker, Vogl, & Thompson, 1997). The FAB is negatively related to dysphoria (Walker, Skowronski, Gibbons, Vogl, & Thompson, 2003), which led researchers to suggest that the FAB is a healthy coping mechanism that improves the overall positivity of life (Walker, Skowronski, & Thompson, 2003). The FAB may also reinforce certain maladaptive behaviors, such as drinking alcohol, as the unpleasant emotions associated with those behaviors quickly fade from memory, and increase the likelihood of those behaviors in the future. If the FAB increases the likelihood of maladaptive alcohol consumption, the FAB should be greatest for ordinary events at low alcohol consumption levels, whereas the FAB should be greatest for alcohol events at high alcohol consumption levels. The results of two studies provided support for the hypotheses. The implications are discussed.

Language: en