The positivity effect worked by choosing positive stimuli rather than avoiding negative stimuli. The role of emotion regulation in older adults was limited, and when the positivity effect faced the effect of the negative aging stereotype, the negative stereotype effect was dominant. Future research should explore the changes in the positivity effect in the face of a positive aging stereotype and what roles other factors (e.g., activation level of the stereotype, arousal level of affective words) might play.

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Implicit evaluation of emotion regulation (IE-ER) refers to an implicit representation of individuals' attitudes about whether emotion should be regulated, and comprises positive (PIE-ER) and negative (NIE-ER) emotion regulation components. In this study we used the picture position decision task to investigate participants' electrical brain responses to both types of IE-ER. Electroencephalogram data were recorded simultaneously. Analysis of variance results show that the PIEER (vs. NIE-ER) group had significantly higher N1 amplitudes, shorter N1 latencies, and lower P1 amplitudes. The P1 amplitude in the left (vs. right) frontal brain region was significantly higher in both groups. In addition, as the PIE-ER (vs. NIE-ER) group had a greater ability to orient themselves to emotional stimuli, the cognitive resources they allocated to processing emotional stimuli decreased: Processing depth gradually became shallow, and emotion regulation elicited left frontal electrical asymmetry. Our findings provide a new understanding of unconscious emotion regulation, which may impact on physical and psychological intervention for the treatment of individuals' emotional problems and mental health, and well-being promotion.

Purpose: To clarify the mechanism of state anxiety on intertemporal decision-making, two studies were conducted to investigate the role of trait anxiety and inhibitory control. Study 1 examined the moderating effect of trait anxiety. Study 2 continued to investigate the mediating effect of inhibition control on the basis of study 1. Methods: A total of 266 Chinese college students participated. Participants’ state anxiety, trait anxiety and intertemporal decision-making were measured by questionnaires (scales) respectively. And inhibition control was evaluated by two-choice oddball paradigm. Results: The results of Study 1 indicated that state anxiety could predict intertemporal decision-making and that the moderating effect of trait anxiety on this relationship was significant. Study 2 found that inhibitory control could completely moderate the relationship between state anxiety and intertemporal decision-making and that this indirect effect was affected by trait anxiety. Conclusion: 1)Individuals with higher trait anxiety are more inclined to make more impulsive and intertemporal decisions when they have a high level of state anxiety; 2)state anxiety allows inhibitory control ability to have a further effect on intertemporal decision-making; and 3)the higher trait anxiety in individuals, the stronger mediating effect of inhibitory control on the relationship between state anxiety and intertemporal decision-making.