Dissociating Valence from Motivational Direction with Scenes of Suffering, Threat, and Harm

Abstract In many common conceptualizations of emotion, feelings of positive and negative valence are closely linked to approach and avoidance motivations. Despite its heuristic value, this assumption can lead to inferential problems when measuring affect, or mask important functional differences between emotional responses to distinct classes of stimuli. Though both are stereotypically negative, personal threats should reliably motivate avoidance from danger, while suffering in others may motivate prosocial approach or distress-related withdrawal. We examined associations between valence and motivational direction in 229 participants who viewed images depicting suffering, threat, or a mix of suffering and threat (i.e., harm). We found that threat elicited the greatest avoidance motivation and a strong correlation between avoidance and negative valence ( r = .77). Compared to threat, suffering elicited similar negative valence, but less avoidance motivation; a weaker correlation between negativity and avoidance ( r = .31); and greater coactivation of approach and avoidance states. Harm images elicited greater negative valence than suffering or threat, but intermediate patterns of approach and avoidance. Across participants, empathy-related traits were associated with the divergence of avoidance motivation from negative valence. These findings offer additional evidence that valence and motivational direction are separable features of affective experience and emphasize the contextual dynamics of emotional processes for supporting goal-directed behavior.