Reading the Negative: Negative Bias in Interrogation of Information Predicts Prenatal Repetitive Negative Thinking

Background Women are at heightened risk of emotional dysfunction during the perinatal period, and elevated Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT) during pregnancy represents a risk factor for clinical anxiety and depression. Recent research suggests that the degree to which first-time expecting mothers selectively access negative rather than positive information, when interrogating a source of perinatal-relevant information, predicts the degree to which they experience elevated RNT concerning perinatal-relevant issues. However, an important question remains: Is the association between negative interrogation bias and elevated RNT specific to perinatal content, or does it reflect a broader, topic-independent cognitive vulnerability? Methods Using an online sample of 133 first-time expecting mothers, the present study sought to replicate and extend this prior research. We increased ecological validity by expanding the scope of the information database that participants were able to interrogate, such that it now contained perinatal-relevant and perinatal-irrelevant options. Results Using this enhanced task variant, we confirmed that interrogation bias favouring negative perinatal-relevant information significantly predicted perinatal-relevant RNT. Additionally, we now also assessed perinatal-irrelevant RNT, together with perinatal-relevant RNT, to determine whether this association between negative interrogation bias and RNT was specific to perinatal content. Both measure of RNT were predicted by negative interrogation bias, regardless of whether this bias was indexed by assessing interrogation of perinatal-relevant or perinatal-irrelevant information. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the link between negative interrogation bias and elevated RNT is not perinatal-specific, but rather reflects a broader, topic-independent cognitive vulnerability. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of these new findings.