Patterns of Reactivity in Misophonia: Profiles of Behavioral and Self-Reported Symptoms
Abstract
Individuals with misophonia experience intense affective reactions to trigger sounds and often cope through avoidance. Avoidance may be anticipatory (preventing exposure) or reactive (escaping exposure), but individual patterns remain poorly understood. In a sample of individuals with misophonia (N = 370), we used Gaussian mixture modeling to identify profiles based on anticipatory avoidance, reactive escape, and emotional responses. We compared profiles derived from behavioral assessments and self-reports and examined their associations with clinical outcomes. Behavioral data revealed three qualitatively distinct profiles: high affective reactivity, anticipatory-dominant reactivity, and reactive-dominant reactivity. Self-reports instead yielded four profiles that mainly reflected severity differences. Agreement between methods was modest, suggesting that they capture partly different aspects of misophonic responding. Behavioral profiles also differed in clinically relevant outcomes. These findings highlight the value of behavioral assessment for identifying distinct response styles and advancing understanding of misophonia beyond symptom severity.
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BibTeX
@misc{remmert2026patterns,
title = {{Patterns of Reactivity in Misophonia: Profiles of Behavioral and Self-Reported Symptoms}},
author = {Nico Remmert and Mercedes Woolley and Marta Siepsiak and Michael Twohig and Steffi Pohl},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/eqkxv_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/eqkxv_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Patterns of Reactivity in Misophonia: Profiles of Behavioral and Self-Reported Symptoms
AU - Nico Remmert
AU - Mercedes Woolley
AU - Marta Siepsiak
AU - Michael Twohig
AU - Steffi Pohl
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/eqkxv_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/eqkxv_v1/
AB - Individuals with misophonia experience intense affective reactions to trigger sounds and often cope through avoidance. Avoidance may be anticipatory (preventing exposure) or reactive (escaping exposure), but individual patterns remain poorly understood. In a sample of individuals with misophonia (N = 370), we used Gaussian mixture modeling to identify profiles based on anticipatory avoidance, reactive escape, and emotional responses. We compared profiles derived from behavioral assessments and self-reports and examined their associations with clinical outcomes. Behavioral data revealed three qualitatively distinct profiles: high affective reactivity, anticipatory-dominant reactivity, and reactive-dominant reactivity. Self-reports instead yielded four profiles that mainly reflected severity differences. Agreement between methods was modest, suggesting that they capture partly different aspects of misophonic responding. Behavioral profiles also differed in clinically relevant outcomes. These findings highlight the value of behavioral assessment for identifying distinct response styles and advancing understanding of misophonia beyond symptom severity.
ER -