Ambivalence and decisional conflict as a cause of psychological discomfort: feeling tense before jumping off the fence

By Frenk van Harreveld, B. Rutjens, M. Rotteveel, L. Nordgren, J. Pligt. 2009

195 citations recorded by the source corpus.

It has long been assumed that people experience evaluative conflict or ambivalence as unpleasant. In three studies we provide direct evidence for the assumption that ambivalence is unpleasant, but only when one has to commit to one side of the issue. In those situations ambivalence will be related to outcome uncertainty and feelings of discomfort. We examined this prediction using both self-reports and physiological measures. In a first study we manipulated ambivalence and whether or not participants had to take a clear stand vis-a vis the attitudinal issue and choose a position for or against it. Results indicate ambivalence was only related to physiological arousal when a choice had to be made. Feeling ambivalent about an issue without the necessity to choose did not result in higher levels of arousal. A second study replicated and extended these findings by including a measure of subjective uncertainty about the decision. Results showed the same pattern as in Study 1, and indicate that the relation between ambivalence and arousal is mediated by uncertainty about decisional outcomes. In the third and final study these findings are corroborated using self-report measures; these indicated that ambivalence-induced discomfort is related to specific (negative) emotions.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, General Decision Sciences, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a33e3660285069415ae46bb4fea3531b9f8d7bd1

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In Applied Psychology

In General Decision Sciences

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Mixed feelings: the case of ambivalence (2017, background): “Ambivalence also becomes more aversive when the evaluative conflict is particularly salient [27,32] or when people are forced to make a choice [33].”
Understanding The Dual Nature of Ambivalence: Why and When Ambivalence Leads to Good and Bad Outcomes (2017, unknown): “Thus, individuals are thought to be motivated to avoid and to reduce or minimize ambivalence and the discomfort it elicits in a variety of ways (see van Harreveld et al., 2009 and van Harreveld et al., 2014 for reviews).”
Anxious Uncertainty and Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM) for Religious, Idealistic, and Lifestyle Extremes (2013, background): “…of links between various threats and subjective personal uncertainty (Arndt & Goldenberg, 2002; Elliot & Devine, 1994; Nash et al., 2011; Van den Bos et al., 2005; Van Harreveld et al., 2009), evidence for mediation of the link between threat and defense by personal uncertainty has been elusive.”