Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with reduced attentional inhibition in the absence of direct threat. (July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Morriss, Jayne; McSorley, Eugene
• Is Part Of: Behaviour research and therapy. Volume 118(2019)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 6
• Publication Date: 2019-07
• Subjects: Attention -- Inhibition -- Eye-movements -- Intolerance of uncertainty -- Anxiety; Cognitive therapy -- Periodicals; Psychotherapy -- Periodicals; 616.891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2019.03.011
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0005-7967

Abstract

Abstract: Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a dispositional tendency to find uncertain situations aversive. There is limited understanding as to how IU may bias attention to uncertainty in the absence of direct threat. Here we examined the extent to which uncertain distractors and individual differences in IU impacted eye-movements during an attentional capture task. Participants were asked to move their eyes towards a target, whilst ignoring an array of distractors. An additional distractor could appear before or after the target in a near or far location from the target. We observed high IU individuals to display fewer first saccades to the target in all conditions. The results were specific to IU, over trait anxiety. Overall, these results suggest that IU modulates attention to uncertainty in the absence of direct threat. Such findings inform the conceptualisation of IU and its relation to psychopathology. Highlights: Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a tendency to find uncertainty anxiety-provoking. We examined how IU impacts attentional capture in the absence of threat. High IU was associated greater attentional capture to uncertain distractors. These findings will further the conceptualisation of IU.