Effects of Modeling and Audience on an Aversive Task

Abstract

Using magnitude of self-administered shock as the aversive task, 90 female undergraduate volunteer subjects were exposed to one of three conditions: (1) no-model condition in which a subject was asked to self-administer an electric shock; (2) model condition wherein a subject witnessed a young female graduate student self-administer increasingly stronger shocks; and (3) model + audience condition in which a non-evaluative audience witnessed the model condition. Analysis of variance indicated that neither model nor presence of an audience combined with a model affected willingness to self-administer higher levels of shock.