When you’re feeling down, chances are you wish you could feel better. However, when people are depressed, they tend to seek negative confirmation of their dejected state. The cognitive theory of depression proposes that a negative view of self, the world, and their future is at the heart of this disorder. Even if you’re not a person who is usually depressed, when you’re in a bad mood you can probably relate to this state of mind.

Reward Devaluation Theory and Depression

According to a new study by University of Minnesota Twin Cities psychologist Mya Urena and colleagues (2025), not only do people with depression seek to verify their negative mindset, but they go so far as to avoid seeking anything positive. This view, known as Reward Devaluation Theory (RDT), stems from experimental studies showing that people high on depression or anxiety shift their gaze away from positive stimuli in laboratory situations. Stated more formally, and based on prior research, Urena et al. note that this aversion applies more generally to their lives: “individuals with depression may be resistant to updating their negative beliefs regarding their future performance and relationships” (p. 2).

Indeed, this interpretation seems to fit with data from studies investigating the so-called “Fear of Happiness.” Paradoxically, people who are attracted to the negative side of life both anticipate and then fear what others may regard as positive outcomes. Not only do they devalue positive consequences, but they figure out a way to see even the most upbeat as negative, stimulating a reaction of fear.

When the Positive Seems Negative

To test RDT’s value as a way to understand the negative mindset of the depressed, Urena and her coauthors developed a new experimental procedure that potentially mimics real situations that depressed people find themselves in. The “Valence Selection Task” involves presenting participants with incomplete sentences that put them in the place of a fictional scenario and seeing how they complete the sentence. For example, see how you would finish off this sentence:

“You are walking to the office. You only have about 5 minutes left of your walk. You are debating whether to stop and buy a coffee when…”

…you see a $10 on the sidewalk

…you trip and fall on the sidewalk

…you see a coffee shop

Clearly, option #1 is positive, #2 is negative, and #3 is neutral. Which did you choose?

To determine how generally RDT affects the way that people view positive outcomes, the authors varied the prompts in these scenarios across three separate studies. The first used these scenarios in terms of the self only. The second included a condition in which someone else was the subject of the incomplete sentences. Finally, in the third study, the authors structured the sentences so that the positive option was “correct,” as shown in this example:

“Gary had $30 in his wallet to spend at the mall. He bought a T-shirt for $12, a pair of socks for $5, and a hat for $8. When he reached the cashier, he found that…

… he had $5 remaining in his wallet to buy a small accessory.”

…he didn’t have enough money and had to return one of the items.”

…the t-shirt was $15.”

Again, which would you choose?

The online samples of participants also completed the Fear of Happiness scale with items such as: “I feel I don’t deserve to be happy”. In the first two studies, the authors also administered standard clinical scales of depression, but decided in the third study only to focus on Fear of Happiness.

Across all three studies, RDT’s predictions were upheld. Particularly impressive were the findings from the third study, in which people high in Fear of Happiness went so far as to avoid choosing what was clearly the right answer. Because the math was so simple, this result implies that, as the authors concluded: “individuals who are happiness-averse do not merely disregard potential positivity. The presence of positivity inhibits their ability to correctly solve problems” (p. 8).

How to Find Your Own Happy Endings

This remarkably simple experiment, even though carried out with artificial stimuli, provides powerful evidence in favor not only of a negativity bias, but of an active positivity “averse” bias. The mental gymnastics it takes to reject a palpably correct and beneficial outcome can only occur if people see good fortune as fear-inducing.

Applying these findings to therapy, the U. Minnesota authors suggest that people with depression could be resistant to the type of interventions that encourage people to reframe negative thoughts into positive ones. Because they “discount” information of a positive nature, this strategy is likely either not to work at all or to backfire, potentially leading the individual to leave therapy altogether.

In terms of your own daily experiences, whether you fit the category of a high fear-of-happiness person or not, the Urena et al. results suggest that you stop and examine your own thought processes the next time you’re feeling miserable. A friend says something nice to you, perhaps a compliment on your outfit. Instead of accepting this in the spirit in which it’s intended, you try to figure out if there’s an insult buried in there somewhere.

Again, though, it’s not just the twisting of positive into negative meanings, but the avoidance of the positive that constitutes reward devaluation. When RDT is in full effect, you simply stay away from potentially happy situations, seeing them somehow as a threat to your well-being.

To sum up, the surprising way in which people who fear happiness interpret even objectively positive situations serves as a reminder that it’s not just the happiness you seek which determines fulfillment, but the happiness you don’t seek to avoid.