Evidence for avoidance tendencies linked to anxiety about specific types of thinking

Abstract

Anxieties that are specific to a particular kind of thinking have been demonstrated for a variety of cognitive domains. One hypothesized consequence of these anxieties is reduced interest in pursuing activities and, consequentially, careers that involve the type of thinking in question in an effort to avoid engaging in that type of thinking. There is little research addressing this avoidance hypothesis, possibly because it is difficult to categorize pursuits as objectively “creative” or “spatial”. Here, we measured the perceptions that participants, themselves, hold about how much pursuits (careers and activities) involve different types of thinking. We developed a novel framework for calculating “affinity coefficients”, within-person associations between perceived cognitive involvement and interest across several pursuits. Having a negative creative affinity coefficient, for instance, means being less interested in pursuits the more they are perceived as involving creative thinking. Results across three separate cognitive domains (creativity, mathematics, and spatial reasoning) reliably showed that higher anxiety in a domain uniquely predicted a lower affinity coefficient in that domain, providing consistent evidence of avoidance tendencies linked to cognition-specific anxieties. These findings suggest that feeling anxious about particular types of thinking may play a significant role in shaping our interests, both big and small.

Examining the Interplay between the Cognitive and Emotional Aspects of Gender Differences in Spatial Processing

“…This is consistent with current trends in the literature which point to reliable interactions between cognitive and affective processing at both the behavioral and neural levels ( Dolcos et al 2011 ; Lerner et al 2015 ; Ochsner and Gross 2005 ; Phelps 2006 ; Storbeck and Clore 2007 ). With respect to gender differences in the spatial domain, accounting for both cognitive and affective differences may be particularly useful in identifying factors underlying disparities in avoidance of activities a person believes involve spatial thinking, such as various STEM fields ( Daker et al 2023a ). Against this backdrop, research has shown that spatial skills are important for successful engagement with STEM fields ( Gunderson et al 2012 ; Lubinski 2010 ; Uttal and Cohen 2012 ).…”

Investigating links between creativity anxiety, creative performance, and state-level anxiety and effort during creative thinking

“…Multiple explanations have been proposed to explain these associations. Some have focused on avoidance—those who are anxious about a type of thinking tend to avoid situations that involve that type of thinking and therefore receive less practice with it 14 , 15 . Other accounts are focused on state-level impacts—feeling anxious about a type of thinking might mean higher state anxiety levels when faced with a situation that involves that type of thinking 13 – 15 (see below for additional detail).…”