Positive Versus Negative Valence: Asymmetries in Attitude Formation and Generalization as Fundamental Individual Differences

Whenever individuals evaluate a novel object or situation, they must integrate its positive and negative aspects. We argue that such valence weighting is essentially an exercise in attitude generalization. Individuals must weigh how much the novel stimulus resembles past occurrences that proved to be positive versus past incidences toward which they have a negative attitude. We overview a program of research in which individuals’ valence weighting tendencies are assessed by examining how their preestablished attitudes generalize to similar but novel attitude objects. Some individuals show evidence of their positive attitudes generalizing more strongly than their negative attitudes, essentially weighting resemblance to a known positive more heavily than resemblance to a known negative. Others show the reverse tendency. Numerous studies are reviewed demonstrating that individual differences in this valence weighting bias predict judgments of novel stimuli across a wide variety of domains, including sensitivity to interpersonal rejection, threat assessment, risk-taking, and exploratory behavior. Additional research highlights the conditions under which this individual difference is most likely to be apparent. Its causal influence is demonstrated through experiments in which individuals’ valence weighting proclivities are recalibrated. We also discuss the relation between valence weighting and different forms of valence asymmetry that may arise during attitude formation. In so doing, we summarize additional research concerning an individual difference related to differential attitude learning upon the reception of positive versus negative outcome information, and we distinguish this learning bias from the weighting bias. As a whole, the research findings link basic attitudinal processes to personality, illustrating the value of viewing systematic variability in processes of evaluation as fundamental individual differences.