AUTHOR=Brodersen Gunnar , Oettingen Gabriele 

TITLE=Mental Contrasting of a Negative Future with a Positive Reality Regulates State Anxiety

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01596

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01596

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Mental contrasting of a desired future with impeding reality is a self-regulatory strategy fostering goal pursuit. However, there is little research on mental contrasting of a negative future with a positive reality. We conducted two experiments, each with four experimental conditions, investigating the effects of mental contrasting a negative future with a positive reality on state anxiety: participants who mentally contrasted a negative future regarding a bacterial epidemic (Study 1, <italic>N</italic> = 199) or an idiosyncratic negative event (Study 2, <italic>N</italic> = 206) showed less state anxiety than participants who imagined the negative future only or who reverse contrasted; participants who mentally elaborated on the positive reality also showed less state anxiety. Our findings suggest that mental contrasting of a negative future helps people reduce disproportional anxiety regarding a negative future.</p>