Describe the process of attraction and love. Make sure to reference the articles below, but also bring in other articles as well.? Extend these findings to other areas.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1974, Vol. 30, No. 4, 510-517

SOME EVIDENCE FOR HEIGHTENED SEXUAL ATTRACTION UNDER CONDITIONS

OF HIGH ANXIETY1

DONALD G. DUTTON 2 AND ARTHUR P. ARON

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Male passersby were contacted either on a fear-arousing suspension bridge or a non-fear-arousing bridge by an attractive female interviewer who asked them to fill out questionnaires containing Thematic Apperception Test pictures. Sexual content of stories written by subjects on the fear-arousing bridge and tendency of these subjects to attempt postexperimental contact with the inter- viewer were both significantly greater. No significant differences between bridges were obtained on either measure for subjects contacted by a male interviewer. A third study manipulated anticipated shock to male subjects and an attractive female confederate independently. Anticipation of own shock but not anticipation of shock to confederate increased sexual imagery scores on the Thematic Apperception Test and attraction to the confederate. Some theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

There is a substantial body of indirect evi- dence suggesting that sexual attractions occur with increased frequency during states of strong emotion. For example, heterosexual love has been observed to be associated both with hate (James, 1910; Suttie, 193S) and with pain (Ellis, 1936). A connection be- tween "aggression" and sexual attraction is supported by Tinbergen's (1954) observa- tions of intermixed courting and aggression behaviors in various animal species, and a series of experiments conducted by Barclay have indicated the existence of a similar phe- nomenon in human behavior. In one study, Barclay and Haber (196S) arranged for stu- dents in one class to be angered by having their professor viciously berate them for hav- ing done poorly on a recent test; another class served as a control. Subsequently, both groups were tested for aggressive feelings and for sexual arousal. A manipulation check was successful, and the angered group manifested signfiicantly more sexual arousal than did controls (p < .01) as measured by explicit sexual content in stories written in response

1 This research was supported by University of British Columbia Research Committee Grant 26 9840 to the first author and National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship 1560 to the second author.

2 Requests for reprints should be sent to Donald G. Dutton, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, British Columbia, Canada,

to Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)-like stimuli. Similar results were obtained in two further studies (Barclay, 1969, 1970) in which fraternity and sorority members were angered by the experimenter. The 1970 study employed a female experimenter, which dem- onstrated that the aggression-sexual arousal link was not specific to male aggression; the 1969 study provided additional support for the hypothesis by using a physiological mea- sure of sexual arousal (acid phosphatase con- tent in urine samples).

Barclay has explained his findings in terms of a special aggression-sexuality link and has cited as support for his position Freud's (1938) argument that prehistoric man had to physically dominate his potential mates and also a study by Clark (1952) in which in- creased sexual arousal produced by viewing slides of nudes yielded increased aggression in TAT responses. Aron (1970), on the other hand, argued that an aggression-sexuality link exists, but it is only a special case of a more general relationship between emotional arousal of all kinds and sexual attraction. To demonstrate this point, he designed a study in which instead of anger, residual emotion from intense role playing was the independent variable. In this experiment, each of 40 male subjects role played with the same attrac- tive female confederate in either a highly emotional or a minimally emotional situation.

510

SEXUAL ATTRACTION UNDER CONDITIONS OF HIGH ANXIETY 511

Subjects enacting highly emotional roles In- cluded significantly more sexual imagery in stories written in response to TAT-like stimuli (p < .01) and indicated significantly more desire to kiss the confederate (p < .05) than did subjects in the control condition. One possible explanation is suggested by Schach- ters' theory of emotion (Schachter, 1964; Schachter & Singer, 1962). He argued that environmental cues are used, in certain cir- cumstances, to provide emotional labels for unexplained or ambiguous states of arousal. However, it is notable that much of the above-cited research indicates that a sexual attraction-strong emotion link may occur even when the emotions are unambiguous. Accordingly, taking into account both the Schachter position and findings from sexual attraction research in general, Aron (1970) hypothesized that strong emotions are re- labeled as sexual attraction whenever an ac- ceptable object is present, and emotion-pro- ducing circumstances do not require the full attention of the individual.

The present series of experiments is de- signed to test the notion that an attractive female is seen as more attractive by males who encounter her while they experience a strong emotion (fear) than by males not experiencing a strong emotion. Experiment 1 is an attempt to verify this proposed emo- tion-sexual attraction link in a natural set- ting. Experiments 2 and 3 are field and lab- oratory studies which attempt to clarify the results of Experiment 1.

EXPERIMENT 1

Method Subjects

Subjects were males visiting either of two bridge sites who fit the following criteria: (a) between 18 and 3$ years old and (b) unaccompanied by a female companion. Only one member of any group of potential subjects was contacted. A total of 85 subjects were contacted by either a male or a female interviewer.

Site The experiment was conducted on two bridges

over the Capilano River in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The "experimental" bridge was the Capilano Canyon Suspension Bridge, a flve-foot-wide, 450-foot-long, bridge constructed of wooden boards attached to wire cables that ran

from one side to the other of the Capilano Canyon. The bridge has many arousal-inducing features such as (a) a tendency to tilt, sway, and wobble, creat- ing the impression that one is about to fall over the side; (6) very low handrails of wire cable which contribute to this impression; and (c) a 230-foot drop to rocks and shallow rapids below the bridge. The "control" bridge was a solid wood bridge further upriver. Constructed of heavy cedar, this bridge was wider and firmer than the experimental bridge, was only 10 feet above a small, shallow rivulet which ran into the main river, had high handrails, and did not tilt or sway.

Procedure

As subjects crossed either the control or experi- mental bridge, they were approached by the inter- viewer.3

Female interviewer. The interviewer explained that she was doing a project for her psychology class on the effects of exposure to scenic attractions on creative expression. She then asked potential sub- jects if they would fill out a short questionnaire. The questionnaire contained six filler items such as age, education, prior visits to bridge, etc., on the first page. On the second page, subjects were in- structed to write a brief, dramatic story based upon a picture of a young woman covering her face with one hand and reaching with the other. The instruc- tions and the picture (TAT Item 3GF) employed were adapted from Murray's (1943) Thematic Ap- perception Test Manual. A similar measure of sexual arousal has been employed in the Barclay studies (1969, 1970; Barclay & Haber, 1965), and in other sex-related experiments (Aron, 1970; Clark, 1952; Leiman & Epstein, 1961). The particular TAT item used in the present study was selected for its lack of obvious sexual content, since projective measures of sexual arousal based on explicit sexual stimuli tend to be highly sensitive to individual differences due to sexual defcnsiveness (Clark & Sensibar, 1955; Eisler, 1968; Leiman & Epstein, 1961; Lubin, 1960). If the subject agreed, the questionnaire was filled out on the bridge.

Stories were later scored for manifest sexual con- tent according to a slightly modified version of the procedure employed by Barclay and Haber (1965). Scores ranged from 1 (no sexual content) to 5 (high sexual content) according to the most sexual ref- erence in the story. Thus, for example, a story with any mention of sexual intercourse received 5 points; ut if the most sexual reference was "girl friend," t received a score of 2 ; "kiss" counted 3; and lover," 4.

On completion of the questionnaire, the inter- iewer thanked the subject and offered to explain the xperiment in more detail when she had more time. t this point, the interviewer tore the corner off a

3 The interviewers were not aware of the ex- erimental hypothesis in order to prevent uninten- ional differential cueing of subjects in experimental nd control groups.

b i "

v e A

p t a

512 DONALD G. BUTTON AND ARTHUR P. ARON

sheet of paper, wrote down her name and phone number, and invited each subject to call, if he wanted to talk further. Experimental subjects were told that the interviewer's name was Gloria and control subjects, Donna, so that they could easily be classified when they called. On the assumption that curiosity about the experiment should be equal between control and experimental groups, it was felt that differential calling rates might reflect dif- ferential attraction to the interviewer.

Male interviewer. The procedure with the male interviewer was identical to that above. Subjects were again supplied with two fictitious names so that if they phoned the interviewer, they could be classified into control or experimental groups.

Results

Check on Arousal Manipulation

Probably the most compelling evidence for arousal on the experimental bridge is to observe people crossing the bridge. Forty percent of subjects observed crossing the bridge walked very slowly and carefully, clasping onto the the handrail before taking each step. A questionnaire was administered to 30 males who fit the same criteria as the experimental subjects. Fifteen males on the experimental bridge were asked, "How fear- ful do you think the average person would be when he crossed this bridge?" The mean rating was 79 on a 100-point scale where 100 was equal to extremely fearful. Fifteen males on the control bridge gave a mean rat- ing of 18 on the same scale (t = 9.7, dj — 28, p < .001, two-tailed). In response to the question "How fearful were you while crossing the bridge?" experimental-bridge males gave a rating of 65 and control-bridge males a rating of 3 (t = 10.6, p < .001, dj = 28, two- tailed). Hence, it can be concluded that most people are quite anxious on the experimental bridge but not on the control bridge. To pre- vent suspicion, no checks on the arousal of experimental subjects could be made.

Thematic Apperception Test Responses

Female interviewer. On the experimental bridge, 23 of 33 males who were approached by the female interviewer agreed to fill in the questionnaire. On the control bridge, 22 of 33 agreed. Of the 45 questionnaires completed, 7 were unusable either because they were incomplete or written in a foreign language. The remaining 38 questionnaires (20 experi-

mental and 18 control) had their TAT stories scored for sexual imagery by two scorers who were experienced with TAT scoring. (Al- though both were familiar with the experi- mental hypothesis, questionnaires had been coded so that they were blind as to whether any given questionnaire was written by a control or experimental subject.) The inter- rater reliability was +.87.

Subjects in the experimental group ob- tained a mean sexual imagery score of 2.47 and those in the control group, a score of 1.41 (* = 3.19, / > < .01, d} = 36, two-tailed). Thus, the experimental hypothesis was veri- fied by the imagery data.

Male interviewer. Twenty-three out of 51 subjects who were approached on the experi- mental bridge agreed to fill in the question- naire. On the control bridge 22 out of 42 agreed. Five of these questionnaires were un- usable, leaving 20 usable in both experimental and control groups. These were rated as above. Subjects in the experimental group obtained a mean sexual imagery score of .80 and those in the control group, .61 (t = .36, ns). Hence the pattern of result obtained by the female interviewer was not reproduced by the male interviewer.

Behavioral Data

Female interviewer. In the experimental group, 18 of the 23 subjects who agreed to the interview accepted the interviewer's phone number. In the control group, 16 out of 22 accepted (see Table 1). A second measure of sexual attraction was the number of subjects who called the interviewer. In the experi- mental group 9 out of 18 called, in the con- trol group 2 out of 16 called (x2 = 5.7, p < .02). Taken in conjunction with the sexual imagery data, this finding suggests that sub- jects in the experimental group were more attracted to the interviewer.

Male interviewer. In the experimental group, 7 out of 23 accepted the interviewer's phone number. In the control group, 6 out of 22 accepted. In the experimental group, 2 subjects called; in the control group, 1 sub- ject called. Again, the pattern of results ob- tained by the female interviewer was not replicated by the male.

SEXUAL ATTRACTION UNDER CONDITIONS OF HIGH ANXIETY 513

TABLE 1

BEHAVIORAL RESPONSES AND THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST IMAGERY SCORES FOR EACH EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

No. filling in No. accepting Usable Sexual imageryInterviewer No. phoningquestionnaire phone number questionnaires score

Female Control bridge 22/33 16/22 2/16 18 1.41 Experimental bridge 23/33 18/23 9/18 20 2.47

Male Control bridge 22/42 6/22 1/6 20 .61 Experimental bridge 23/51 7/23 2/7 20 .80

Although the results of this experiment provide prima facie support for an emotion- sexual attraction link, the experiment suffers from interpretative problems that often plague field experiments. The main problem with the study is the possibility of different subject populations on the two bridges. First, the well-advertised suspension bridge is a tour- ist attraction that may have attracted more out-of-town persons than did the nearby provincial park where the control bridge was located. This difference in subject popula- tions may have affected the results in two ways. The experimental subjects may have been less able to phone the experimenter (if they were in town on a short-term tour) and less likely to hold out the possibility of further liaison with her. If this were the case, the resulting difference due to subject differ- ences would have operated against the main hypothesis. Also, this difference in subject populations could not affect the sexual imagery scores unless one assumed the experimental bridge subjects to be more sexually deprived than controls. The results using the male interviewer yielded no significant differences in sexual imagery between experimental and control subjects; however, the possibility still exists that sexual deprivation could have in- teracted with the presence of the attractive female experimenter to produce the sexual imagery results obtained in this experiment.

Second, differences could exist between ex- perimental and control populations with re- spect to personality variables. The experi- mental population might be more predisposed to thrill seeking and therefore more willing to chance phoning a strange female to effect a liaison. Also, present knowledge of person- ality theory does not allow us to rule out the

combination of thrill seeking and greater sex- ual imagery. Accordingly, a second experi- ment was carried out in an attempt to rule out any differential subject population expla- nation for the results of Experiment 1.

EXPERIMENT 2

Method Subjects

Subjects were 34 males visiting the suspension bridge who fit the same criteria as in Experiment 1.

Procedure

The chief problem of Experiment 2 was choosing a site that would allow contact with aroused and nonaroused members of the same subject population. One possibility was to use as a control group sus- pension-bridge visitors who had not yet crossed the bridge or who had just gotten out of their cars. Unfortunately, if a substantial percentage of this group subsequently refused to cross the bridge, the self-selecting-subject problem of Experiment 1 would not be circumvented. Alternatively, males who had just crossed the bridge could be used as a control. The problem with this strategy was that this group, having just crossed the bridge, may have felt residual anxiety or elation or both, which would confound the study. To avoid this latter problem, control subjects who had just crossed the bridge and were sitting or walking in a small park were contacted at least 10 minutes after crossing the bridge. This strategy, it was hoped, would rule out residual physiological arousal as a confounding factor. Except that a different female experimenter was used in Experiment 2 and no male interviewer condition was run, all other details of the study were identical to Experiment 1.

Results

heck on Arousal ManipulationC

As with Experiment 1, no arousal manipu- lation check was given to experimental sub- jects in order not to arouse suspicion about the real intent of the experiment. Data for a

514 DONALD G. BUTTON AND ARTHUR P. AEON

group of nonexperimental subjects of the same age and sex as experimental subjects are reported in Experiment 1.

Thematic Apperception Test Responses

In the experimental group, 25 of 34 male who were approached agreed to fill in th questionnaire. In the control group, 25 ou of 35 agreed. Of the 50 questionnaires com pleted, 5 were unusable because they wer incomplete. The remainder (23 experimenta and 22 control) were scored for sexual im agery as in Expriment 1. The interrater reli ability in Experiment 2 was +.79.

Subjects in the experimental group obtained a mean sexual imagery score of 2.99 and those in the control group, a score of 1.92 (t-3.07, p < .01, c?/ = 36, two-tailed) Thus the experimental hypothesis was again verified by the imagery data.

s e t – e l – –

.

Behavioral Data

In the experimental group, 20 of the 25 subjects who agreed to the interview accepted the interviewer's phone number. In the con- trol group, 19 out of 23 accepted. In the experimental group, 13 out of 20 called, while in the control group, 7 out of 23 phoned (x2

= 5.89, p < .02). Thus the behavioral result of Experiment 1 was also replicated.

Experiment 2 enables the rejection of the notion of differential subject populations as an explanation for the control-experimental- bridge differences for female interviewers in Experiment 1. However, some additional problems in the interpretation of the apparent anxiety-sexual attraction link require the superior control afforded by a laboratory set- ting.

First, although the female experimenter was blind to the experimental hypothesis and her behavior toward the subjects was closely monitored by the experimenter, the possibility of differential behavior toward the subjects occurring was not excluded. Distance of the interviewer from the subjects was controlled in both Experiments 1 and 2, but more stable nonverbal forms of communication (such as eye contact) could not be controlled without cueing the female interviewer to the experi- mental hypothesis.

Second, even if the interviewer did not

behave differentially .in experimental and con- trol conditions, she may have appeared dif- ferently in the two conditions. For example, the gestalt created by the experimental situ- ation may have made the interviewer appear more helpless or frightened, virtually a "lady in distress." Such would not be the case in the control situation.

If this different gestalt led to differences in sexual attraction, the apparent emotion-sexual arousal link might prove artifactual. Accord- ingly, a laboratory experiment was run in which tighter control over these factors could be obtained. This experiment involved a 2 X 2 factorial design, where (a) the male subject expected either a painful or nonpainful shock (subject's emotion was manipulated) and (b) the female confederate also expected either a painful or nonpainful shock (the lady-in-dis- tress gestalt was manipulated).

EXPERIMENT 3

Method Subjects

Eighty male freshmen at the University of British Columbia took part in this experiment. All subjects were volunteers.

Much of the initial phase of the procedure was patterned after that used in Schachter's (1959) anxiety and affiliation research. Subjects entered an experimental room containing an array of electrical equipment. The experimenter welcomed the subject and asked him if he had seen another person who looked like he was searching for the experimental room. The experimenter excused himself "to look for the other subject," leaving the subject some Xeroxed copies "of previous studies in the area we are in- vestigating" to read. The articles discussed the effects of electric shock on learning and pain in general.

The experimenter reentered the room with the "other subject," who was an attractive female con- federate.4 The confederate took off her coat and sat

4 The female confederate knew that the study involved sexual attraction but did not know the experimental hypothesis. Her every action in the experimental room was carefully rehearsed to avoid any possibility of differential behavior among ex- perimental conditions. Spacing of the confederate's chair from the subject's was carefully controlled, and the confederate was instructed to avoid any eye contact with the subject after their initial intro- duction. Hence, eye contact was restricted to the confederate's entering the room and returning to her chair after removing her coat. Both the confederate's and the subject's chairs faced the same direction (toward the experimenter), so that eye contact was

SEXUAL ATTRACTION UNDER CONDITIONS OF HIGH ANXIETY 515

on a chair three feet to the side and slightly in front of the subject. The experimenter explained that the study involved the effects of electric shock on learning and delivered a short discourse on the value and importance of the research. At the end of this discourse, the experimenter asked if either subject wanted out of the experiment. As expected, no subject requested to leave.

The experimenter then mentioned that two levels of shock would be used in the experiment, describ- ing one as quite painful and the other level as a "mere tingle, in fact some subjects describe it as enjoyable," and concluded by pointing out that the allocation of subjects to shock condition had to be "completely random so that personality variables won't affect the outcome." At this point, the experi- menter asked both subjects to flip a coin to deter- mine which shock level they would receive.5 Hence, the subject reported "heads/tails," the confederate reported "heads/tails," and the experimenter said, "Today heads receives the high shock level." The experimenter then described the way in which the shock series would take place, the method of hooking subjects into electrodes, etc.

The experimenter then asked if the subjects had any questions, answered any that arose, and then said:

It will take me a few minutes to set up this equipment. While I'm doing it, I would like to get some information on your present feelings and reactions, since these often influence performance on the learning task. I'd like you to fill out a questionnaire to furnish us with this information. We have two separate cubicles down the hall where you can do this—you will be undisturbed and private, and I can get this equipment set up.

The confederate then got up, walked in front of the subject to her coat, which was hanging on the wall, rummaged around for a pencil, and returned to her chair. The experimenter then led the subject and the confederate to the cubicles, where they pro- ceeded to fill out the questionnaires.

Results

A three-part questionnaire constituted the dependent measure of this study. Part 1 (feel- ings about the experiment) included a check on the anxiety manipulation, Part 2 (feelings toward your co-subject) included two attrac-

easily avoided. In addition, the confederate's chair was somewhat closer to the experimenter than was the subject's chair, so that the subject could see the confederate while the experimenter delivered the instructions.

5 Toward the end of the experiment, the confed- erate was told to report either the same result as the subject or a different result (of the coin flip) to facilitate obtaining equal ns for experimental conditions as quickly as possible.

TABLE 2

REPORTED ANXIETY IN EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS

Female con- Female con- Subject federate to federate to No female expects: get strong get weak confederate

shock shock

Strong shock 3.17 3,05 3.80 weak shock 2.42 2.28

Note, n per cell = 20.

tion questions found to be most sensitive in experimental situations of this sort (Aron, 1970), and Part 3 included the TAT picture used in Experiments 1 and 2, which was again scored for sexual imagery.

Anxiety

Anxiety was measured by the question "How do you feel about being shocked?" (cf., Schachter, 1959) to which subjects could respond on a 5-point scale where scores greater than 3 indicated dislike. (The greater the score, the greater the anxiety.) Table 2 presents the results on this measure. In con- ditions where the subject anticipated receiving a strong shock, subjects reported significantly more anxiety than in conditions where the subject anticipated receiving a weak shock (t = 4.03, p < .001, df = 39, one-tailed). In conditions where the subject anticipated re- ceiving a strong shock with the female co- subject present, subjects reported signifi- cantly less anxiety than in a control condi- tion (n = 20), where two male subjects were run (t = 2.17, p < .025, df – 19, one-tailed). No significant differences in the subject's anxiety occurred as a function of the confed- erate receiving a strong versus a weak shock (see Table 2).

Attraction to Confederate

Two questions assessed attraction to the confederate in this study: (a) How much would you like to ask her out for a date? and (b) how much would you like to kiss her? (An alternative set of questions was pro- vided for those subjects who ostensibly had a male copartner. The experimenter instructed subjects in this condition to overlook these.) Attraction ratings were established by taking the mean rating made by subjects on these two questions. Table 3 shows the results, by

516 DONALD G. BUTTON AND ARTHUR P. ARON

TABLE 3

ATTRACTION RATINGS BY EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION

Female confederate Female confederateSubject expects: to get strong shock to get weak shock

Strong shock 3.7 3.4 Weak shock 2.9 2.7

Note. Strongest attraction rating is 5.

condition, of those ratings. A 2 X 2 analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for subjects anticipating strong shock to themselves on attraction ratings (F = 22.8, /»<.001). Subjects' expectations of strong versus weak shock to the female confederate produced no significant increase in attraction (^ = 2.61, ns). (There was no significant interaction.) Hence, the lady-in-distress effect on attraction did not seem to appear in this study.

Thematic Apperception Test Responses

Sexual imagery scores on the TAT ques- tionnaire were obtained as in Experiments 1 and 2 and are shown in Table 4. In the present study, sexual imagery was higher when the subject expected strong shock but only when the female confederate also ex- pected strong shock (F = 4.73, / > < .05). When the female confederate expected weak shock, differences in sexual imagery scores as a function of strength of shock anticipated by the subject failed to achieve significance (F = 4.22, /» = .07).

GENERAL DISCUSSION

The results of these studies would seem to provide a basis of support for an emotion- sexual attraction link. The Barclay studies (Barclay, 1969, 1970; Barclay & Haber, 1965) have already demonstrated such a link for aggression and sexual arousal, and the present findings seem to suggest that the link may hold for fear as well. Indeed, the present

TABLE 4

SEXUAL IMAGERY SCORES BY EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION

Female confederate Female confederateSubject expects: to get strong shock to get weak shock

Strong shock 2.27 2.19 Weak shock 1.52 1,69

Note. Strongest imagery score Is 5.

outcome would seem to be particularly satis- fying in light of the very strong differences obtained from the relatively small subject populations, and because these results were obtained, in Experiments 1 and 2, outside of the laboratory in a setting in which real- world sexual attractions might be expected to occur.

The strong result of Experiment 3 sup- ports the notion that strong emotion per se increases the subject's sexual attraction to the female confederate. Brehm, Gatz, Goe- thals, McCrimmon, and Ward (1967) ob- tained results consistent with Experiment 3 in a similar study. They also had male sub- jects threatened by impending electric shock in two experimental groups and not threat- ened in the control group. They obtained an F significant at the 5% level for differences between the threat and no-t

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