Lower Intolerance of Uncertainty but Not Behavioral Inhibition Is Associated with Increased Preference for a Novel Context

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and behavioral inhibition (BI) are personality traits associated with avoidance of the unfamiliar. Both are linked to anxiety and other disorders. However, most research on personality has relied on self-report, which may not correspond to actual behavior. An alternative is to observe behavior in computer-based tasks designed to assess personality. The current study sought to develop such a task, based on the conditioned place preference paradigm, which is sensitive to IU but not BI. Participants foraged for reward in a virtual environment consisting of multiple interconnected rooms. In the training phase, the rich room was paired with a higher number of wins than losses. The poor room was the opposite. In the test phase, participants could freely search any of the rooms, including a completely new room. Although most showed a strong initial preference for the new room, those with higher self-reported IU left this room faster, foraging there significantly less than those with lower IU. This preference also depended on information provided about the new room. There was a strong positive correlation between IU and BI; however, the latter was unrelated to behavior. Thus, the task captures a unique component of IU.