Motivation Science, Vol 12(3), Sep 2026, 361-373; doi:10.1037/mot0000418
Motivational theories highlight the central role of individual differences in emotional responses to motive-relevant cues. Prior studies have examined positive affective contingencies, which describe the tendency to feel pleasure in response to motive-congruent rewards. The present research shifts focus to negative affective contingencies (NACs), defined as the tendency to experience negative emotions in response to threats to motive satisfaction, and examines them specifically in the affiliation domain. Across two studies (N = 299 and N = 672), we employed a scale-based and a picture-based measure of affiliation-specific NACs. Both measures were reliable, correlated moderately with each other and with affiliation-specific positive affective contingencies, and were linked to the affiliation motive, fear of rejection, attachment insecurity, and conflictual processing of the motivational individuation conflict. Importantly, NACs moderated emotional responses to experimentally induced social exclusion, highlighting their relevance for understanding interpersonal vulnerability. These findings establish NACs as a relevant and measurable construct within the affiliation motive domain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)