Inflexible Autonomic Responses to Sadness Predict Habitual and Real-World Rumination: A Multi-Level, Multi-Wave Study.

•The downstream behavioral consequences of autonomic inflexibility are not well understood.•Rumination is one candidate phenotype relevant to autonomic inflexibility.•Individuals with less autonomic flexibility had higher levels of trait rumination.•Less flexible individuals also were more likely to ruminate in daily life, regardless of stress exposure.•Suggests a potential behavioral mechanism by which autonomic inflexibility leads to problems with self-regulation and depression.