Anxiety predicts anticipatory emotional states, whereas fear predicts immediate responses: psychophysiological evidence from a virtual reality study

Fear and anxiety differ in their causes and psychophysiological responses to acute stress. While anxiety occurs before the threat, fear is activated in the immediate presence of the threat. In this study, virtual reality was used to induce fear of heights, corresponding to the defensive behavior of freezing. In a sample of 98 participants, a freezing response was successfully induced and tracked using both subjective indicators of stress and electrodermal activity (EDA). Additionally, the Stress Silhouette test was used to identify areas of muscular tension in the body; the Questionnaire of Approach and Avoidance Motivation (QAAM) measured stable individual differences in the experience of fear and anxiety; and the Tonic Immobility Scale (TIS) was used to track momentary emotional states during stress induction. Results support the distinction between anxiety and fear: anxiety predicted anticipatory subjective distress and EDA, whereas fear predicted only subjective distress during direct exposure to the stressor. Furthermore, no correlation was found between subjective distress and EDA, and a body map of muscle tension during the freezing experience was explored. The findings of this study are largely consistent with previous research and theoretical expectations and highlight the utility of VR for studying defensive responses in humans.