Interpretative inferences when reading about emotional events

In three experiments we investigated the extent to which individuals with high or low levels of anxiety about interviews made emotionally-congruent interpretative inferences while reading descriptions of a relevant ambiguously-threatening event (being interviewed for a job). Evidence was found to support the hypothesis that groups varying in self-reported concern about the described event differed in the interpretations that they made while reading. Taken together, the results of the three experiments are consistent with the conclusion that non-anxious individuals infer positive outcomes to an ambiguous event, while highly anxious individuals do not. We suggest that these results have implications for cognitive processes that could maintain anxiety in real life.