To gauge the effects of ambiguity as against negative outcome, researchers at the University of Toronto enrolled 41 adults.
To determine their degree of neurosis, the participants were put through a range of brain tasks after being fitted with an electrode cap that tracked neural activity in interior cingulate cortex - an area within brain associated with anxiety and conflicts.
While the EEG (electroencephalography - method to monitor brain activity) was being conducted, the participants were then made to take simple quiz questions on the computer. The feedback for each query answered was put up in symbols, a plus sign for a good performance, a minus sign marking a need for improvement or a question mark with no further explanation.
More neurotic individuals, the ones who had scored higher on the neuroticism scale, recorded a high brain activity in their interior cingulate cortex when they were awarded a question mark for their response, than when the got a plus or a minus sign.
Conversely, participants who were not neurotic were not disturbed by uncertainty but were more distressed by a negative feedback, researchers found.
"The idiom 'the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know' perfectly characterizes the attitudes of highly neurotic people," Jacob B. Hirsh, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study said.
The results of the study feature in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science.
Unlike a psychosis or some personality disorder, Neurosis dose not prevent or affect an individual’s rational thinking. Medically, Neurosis is a term that highlights a state of mental imbalance that causes distress.
People with neurotic tendencies typically exhibit symptoms like depression
define, anxiety, and phobias. In severe cases the condition could trigger obsessive-compulsive tendencies, personality disorders and psychosis, a complete loss of contact with reality.
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