Abstract
The effect of general internal arousal was examined as a determinant of the utilization of nonveridical feedback of physiological reactions to emotional and nonemotional stimuli. 20 male Ss in a high-arousal condition were shown 10 slides depicting nude females and 20 Ss in a low-arousal condition were shown 10 slides depicting high-performance automobiles. All Ss received bogus feedback indicating that their GSRs had significantly increased in response to 5 of the slides (reinforced slides) and remained unaffected by the other 5 (nonreinforced slides). The results show that only high-arousal Ss expressed a preference for prints of reinforced slides and rated them as more attractive than nonreinforced slides. This finding is seen as pointing to the necessity of including internal arousal as a motivational factor affecting emotional judgments and as indicating the feasibility of an alternative explanation for the results of other studies which have suggested that affective labeling may be motivated by cognitions of arousal alone.
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