(PS2-17) Dynamics of Emotional Inertia: The Moderating Role of Anticipated Future Events

Emotional inertia, the persistence of emotions over time, is an important aspect of emotion dynamics that has been implicated in depression (Kuppens et al., 2010) and, more recently, anxiety (Pawluk et al., 2021). Despite its inherently temporal nature, this construct has largely been studied as a trait-like, time-invariant process. Far fewer studies have examined how emotional inertia fluctuates within individuals over time and across different contexts (e.g., Chiang et al., 2024; De Haan-Rietdijk et al., 2016). One potentially important contextual feature is upcoming events, given evidence linking anticipation of stressors to changes in emotion dynamics more generally (Kalokerinos et al., 2021; Koval & Kuppens, 2012). However, no study to date has examined how anticipated future events moderate the “stickiness” of emotions. Addressing this gap is crucial for understanding the role of anticipatory processes in the persistent adverse emotional states that characterize emotional disorders.

A mixed sample (N = 162) of community-dwelling adults with interview-assessed generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, or no psychopathology participated in an ecological momentary assessment study. Over 7 days, participants were prompted by an electronic device 9 times daily in 90-minute intervals to rate their current affect on a scale from 1 (Not at all) to 7 (Extremely). Feelings of dread, anxiousness, tension, sadness, and stress were averaged into a negative affect (NA) composite. Feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and excitement were averaged into a positive affect (PA) composite. Additionally, participants described the most significant event they anticipated in the upcoming 90 minutes and rated the valence of that event on a scale from -5 (Very negative) to 5 (Very positive).

We used multilevel autoregressive models to account for nesting in the data (prompts nested within individuals). As expected, NA at prompt t was predicted by NA at prompt t-1, confirming the presence of negative emotional inertia (b = 0.36, p < .001). Anticipatory event valence moderated this effect, such that NA was more inert when individuals anticipated more negative events (b = -0.02, p < .001). PA at prompt t was also predicted by PA at prompt t-1, providing evidence for positive emotional inertia (b = 0.34, p < .001). However, contrary to the moderation results for NA, PA inertia was not influenced by the valence of anticipated events (b < 0.01, p = .756). 

To our knowledge, our study is the first to model emotional inertia as a function of anticipated event valence in daily life. Our findings demonstrate that the inertia of NA increases as individuals anticipate increasingly negative events. Importantly, we found no evidence that the valence of anticipated events has any impact on the inertia of PA. These results underscore the specific role of anticipated event characteristics in perpetuating negative emotions in everyday life; understanding these associations could inform interventions aimed at disrupting patterns of sustained negative emotion and fostering emotional resilience. The final poster will also test whether the moderating effect of anticipated event valence differs in magnitude for anxious and depressed individuals.