Can worriers be winners? The association between worrying and job performance

We explored the association between the tendency to worry (also known as trait anxiety) and workplace performance. We hypothesized that worrying would correlate positively with workplace performance, basing our hypothesis on the idea that, far from being a disorder, anxiety is an important component of motivated cognition, essential for efficient functioning in situations that require caution, self-discipline and the general anticipation of threat. In a commercial (N=68) sample, we found support for this hypothesis but only amongst individuals at the higher end of the ability scale. Specifically we found that, in the more cognitively able individuals, worrying was positively correlated with performance but as ability declined this relationship disappeared. Results suggest that links between ability and neuroticism could make a contribution to future research.