How positivity diminishes: evaluative conditioning of positive, negative, and neutral feelings towards positive scenery

Positive feelings may diminish. It is unclear whether this decrease stems from people feeling less positive, more negative, more neutral, or some combination. Using an evaluative conditioning (EC) paradigm, we investigated how pre-existing affective evaluations to positive stimuli might be modified. In three experiments (N = 635), participants saw positive scenic images, the conditioned stimuli (CSs), repeatedly paired with either positive, negative, neutral, or no faces, the unconditioned stimuli (USs). Some CSs did not undergo EC (control condition in Experiment 3). Respondents rated how positive, negative, neutral, and aroused (Experiment 2) they felt about the CSs before and after conditioning. The negative US pairings increased negativity, decreased positivity, and further decreased neutrality. Neutral US pairings increased neutrality, decreased positivity, and did not alter negativity relative to the control condition. Positive US pairings sustained or increased positivity, had no effect on negativity, and decreased neutrality which might help solidify positive reactions. No US pairings operated akin to the control condition, and arousal did not explain the results. Thus, positivity diminishes via multiple pathways. Both negative and neutral USs decrease it, but the negative USs promote more negativity and less neutrality; whereas neutral USs promote more neutrality and not negativity.