Anxiety: why do we worry about things that never happen?

Your partner is an hour late and not answering the phone. Within minutes you have pictured an accident, a hospital and a phone call from the police.

Then the door opens. The phone battery died. Nothing happened.

Most of us know this feeling. But for some people it is a daily companion, while others hardly ever think about what could go wrong.

Psychologists describe this difference with the facet anxiety. In the Big Five model, it is one of six facets of neuroticism. It describes how easily you feel worried, tense and afraid that something bad is about to happen.

What does anxiety mean?

In everyday speech, "anxiety" often makes people think of panic attacks or a diagnosis. In personality psychology the word is broader: it describes a general tendency to worry and to sense danger, more or less independent of what is actually happening.

People who score high often recognise themselves in this:

• You worry about things that might happen, even when they are unlikely.
• You quickly think of the worst possible outcome.
• You feel tense, restless or on edge without always knowing why.
• You are afraid of many things, from illness to money to how things will turn out.
• You get stressed easily when plans change or something is uncertain.

A high score does not mean you have an anxiety disorder. Many high scorers live full lives and are simply people who think ahead, sometimes a little too much.

The key is not whether you feel fear, because everyone does, but how easily the alarm goes off and how long it keeps ringing.

Over 90 percent of worries did not come true

Researchers at Penn State University asked 29 people with generalised anxiety disorder to write down their worries when prompted over ten days. They then tracked whether the worries actually came true over the following 30 days.

The result: 91.4 percent of the worries did not come true. The most common result for a single participant was that none of their worries came true.

The participants had also expected their worries to come true far more often than they actually did. And the more clearly a person saw that the worries had been wrong, the more their symptoms improved during treatment.

The study was small and involved people with a diagnosis, not the general population. But it shows something many people with high anxiety recognise: worry feels like a forecast, but it is a poor one.

Why do we keep worrying anyway?

If most worries are wrong, why don't we just stop?

One explanation is called the contrast avoidance model, developed by the psychologists Michelle Newman and Sandra Llera. They argue that people who worry a lot are especially sensitive to sudden shifts from feeling good to feeling bad.

Worry keeps you in a state of mild unease all the time. If something bad does happen, the fall is shorter, because you were already prepared. And if nothing happens, it may feel as though the worry "worked".

The model was developed to explain generalised anxiety disorder, not ordinary personality differences. But it illustrates a mechanism worth knowing: worry can feel like protection, even when it mainly costs you peace of mind.

The brain notices danger first

A large meta-analysis from 2007 pooled 172 studies of attention and threat. It found that anxious people tend to direct their attention towards threatening information, such as threatening words or pictures, more than non-anxious people do.

The effect was moderate, but it appeared across different methods and in different groups: people with anxiety disorders, highly anxious people without a diagnosis, children and adults. It was also found when the threatening stimuli were shown so briefly that people did not consciously see them. Among non-anxious people, the bias was not found.

That may help explain why the world can feel more dangerous for someone high in anxiety. They do not invent dangers. They notice them sooner and more often.

Anxiety is not the same as vulnerability

Neuroticism has two facets that are easy to mix up: anxiety and vulnerability.

Anxiety is mostly about what happens before: worrying, imagining what could go wrong, feeling tense ahead of time.

Vulnerability is about what happens during: whether you panic, feel overwhelmed or lose your grip when the pressure is actually on.

Many people score high on both, but not everyone does. Some worry for weeks before an exam, yet are calm and focused once they sit down. Others hardly think about it beforehand, but freeze when it really counts.

Anxiety is also different from self-consciousness, which is specifically about fear of being judged by others. Anxiety is broader and can be about anything: health, money, accidents or the future.

What does a high or low score mean?

High anxiety

You are quick to notice what could go wrong and often feel some degree of tension. This can be tiring, and worry can steal sleep and energy.

At the same time, many high scorers are thorough, well prepared and good at spotting risks others overlook. In jobs where mistakes are costly, that can be a real strength.

Low anxiety

You are usually calm and do not spend much time on what might happen. You handle uncertainty fairly easily and rarely lose sleep over things you cannot control.

The flip side can be that you underestimate real risks or prepare less than you should. Calm is not the same as careful. Caution is measured separately, under cautiousness in conscientiousness.

Both descriptions are about typical tendencies, not rules that hold in every situation.

In everyday life

• At work: High scorers often double-check and plan for problems. The risk is spending too much energy on scenarios that never happen.
• In relationships: Worrying about a partner or children can be a sign of care, but it can also lead to a lot of checking and reassurance-seeking.
• Health: Small symptoms can quickly feel alarming. Searching online for symptoms often makes it worse, not better.
• At night: Many people with high anxiety notice that worry grows stronger when they are trying to fall asleep.

Can anxiety change?

Personality is fairly stable, but not fixed.

A large review from 2017 pooled 207 studies and found that psychological treatment was associated with clear changes in measured personality traits, especially emotional stability. Patients with anxiety disorders changed the most of all the groups studied.

There are also simple techniques with research behind them. In one experiment, 53 people with high trait worry were asked for two weeks to save their worries for a fixed 30-minute "worry period" each day, at the same time and in the same place. Compared with a control group, they reported less worry, anxiety, negative mood and sleep problems afterwards.

Other things that may help:

• Write down your worries and check later whether they came true.
• Ask yourself what you would do if the worst actually happened, instead of only how likely it is.
• Notice when worry is trying to "protect" you, and test what happens if you let go a little.

A Big Five score is not a diagnosis. If worry or fear causes significant distress or limits your daily life, it is worth talking to your doctor or a psychologist. Anxiety disorders are common and respond well to treatment.

Frequently asked questions

Is high anxiety in the Big Five the same as an anxiety disorder?

No. The facet measures a normal personality tendency that everyone has to a greater or lesser degree. An anxiety disorder is a clinical diagnosis that requires the symptoms to cause significant distress or impairment, and it can only be made by a professional.

Is worrying ever useful?

Yes, in moderation. Thinking ahead can help you prepare and avoid real problems. It becomes a problem when worry is hard to stop, covers many areas at once and does not lead to any action.

Can I be high in anxiety and still be brave?

Yes. Courage is not the absence of fear, but acting despite it. Many people with high anxiety do things that frighten them, and that is often exactly what helps the fear diminish.

How is anxiety measured in the Big Five test?

Our test is based on the IPIP-NEO-120, where each facet is measured with four statements. For anxiety, they are about worrying about things, fearing the worst, being afraid of many things and getting stressed out easily. Read the score as a sign of a pattern, not as a complete description of you.

Find out where you score

Anxiety is only one of the six facets of neuroticism. You can worry a lot and still score low on anger, depression or impulsiveness.

Take the Big Five test and see your whole profile, with all 30 facets.

Sources

• LaFreniere, L. S. & Newman, M. G. (2020). Exposing worry's deceit: Percentage of untrue worries in generalized anxiety disorder treatment. Behavior Therapy, 51(3), 413–423.
• Newman, M. G. & Llera, S. J. (2011). A novel theory of experiential avoidance in generalized anxiety disorder: A review and synthesis of research supporting a contrast avoidance model of worry. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(3), 371–382.
• Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2007). Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 1–24.
• McGowan, S. K. & Behar, E. (2013). A preliminary investigation of stimulus control training for worry. Behavior Modification, 37(1), 90–112.
• Roberts, B. W. et al. (2017). A systematic review of personality trait change through intervention. Psychological Bulletin, 143(2), 117–141.
• Johnson, J. A. (2014). Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality, 51, 78–89.