People vary in their emotion preferences (i.e., desired emotional states). No study, however, has examined the nature of emotion preferences in anxiety. In the current study, we used a 14-day ecological momentary assessment paradigm to investigate the daily dynamics of emotion preferences and state emotion as they relate to individual differences in trait anxiety and anxiety symptom severity. Individuals with higher levels of trait anxiety and with more severe anxiety symptoms reported greater preferences for state anxiety compared with their low-anxiety counterparts. Relations between anxiety preferences and subsequent anxiety vary as a function of trait anxiety and symptom severity, and different associations are observed between the two measures of anxiety. The current findings suggest that aberrant emotion preferences may contribute to emotion dysfunction in anxiety and highlight emotion preferences as a novel treatment target for interventions that aim to improve emotion functioning among people with elevated levels of anxiety.

人们的情绪偏好（即期望的情绪状态）各不相同。然而，没有研究检查过焦虑中情绪偏好的性质。在目前的研究中，我们使用 14 天的生态瞬时评估范式来调查情绪偏好和状态情绪的日常动态，因为它们与特质焦虑和焦虑症状严重程度的个体差异相关。与低焦虑水平的人相比，具有更高水平焦虑和更严重焦虑症状的个体报告了对状态焦虑的更大偏好。焦虑偏好和随后的焦虑之间的关系随着特质焦虑和症状严重程度的变化而变化，并且在两种焦虑测量之间观察到不同的关联。