Implicit but Stable Mental Imagery Changes Explicit but not Implicit Anxiety

This study investigates the malleability of explicit and implicit anxiety through mental imagery. Sixty adults imagined themselves in an anxious, calm, or neutral situation. Thereafter, explicit state and trait anxiety were assessed with self-reports, and implicit anxiety was assessed with a variant of the Implicit Association Test. The results indicate that imagery manipulation changed state anxiety in the expected direction. Explicit trait anxiety and implicit anxiety, however, were found to be stable. These findings suggest that the implicit self-concept of anxiety has trait-like characteristics and is as stable against a short-term voluntary mental control strategy as an established explicit measure of trait anxiety.