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.DUTTON2
ANDARTHUR 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 interviewer
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 evidence
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 between
"aggression" and sexual attraction is
supported by Tinbergen's (1954) observations
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 phenomenon
in human behavior. In one study,
Barclay and Haber (196S) arranged for students
in one class to be angered by having
their professor viciously berate them for having
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 demonstrated
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 measure
of sexual arousal (acid phosphatase content
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 increased
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 attractive
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 Included
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 Schachters'
theory of emotion (Schachter, 1964;
Schachter & Singer, 1962). He argued that
environmental cues are used, in certain circumstances,
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 relabeled
as sexual attraction whenever an acceptable
object is present, and emotion-producing
circumstances do not require the full
attention of the individual.
The present series of experiments is designed
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 emotion-sexual
attraction link in a natural setting.
Experiments 2 and 3 are field and laboratory
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, creating
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 experimental
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 subjects
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 instructed
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 instructions
and the picture (TAT Item 3GF) employed
were adapted from Murray's (1943) Thematic Apperception
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 content
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 reference
in the story. Thus, for example, a story with
any mention of sexual intercourse received 5 points;
but if the most sexual reference was "girl friend,"
it received a score of 2; "kiss" counted 3; and
"lover," 4.
On completion of the questionnaire, the interviewer
thanked the subject and offered to explain the
experiment in more detail when she had more time.
At this point, the interviewer tore the corner off a
3
The interviewers were not aware of the experimental
hypothesis in order to prevent unintentional
differential cueing of subjects in experimental
and control groups.
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 differential
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 fearful
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 rating
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, twotailed).
Hence, it can be concluded that most
people are quite anxious on the experimental
bridge but not on the control bridge. To prevent
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 experimental
and 18 control) had their TAT stories
scored for sexual imagery by two scorers who
were experienced with TAT scoring. (Although
both were familiar with the experimental
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 interrater
reliability was +.87.
Subjects in the experimental group obtained
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 verified
by the imagery data.
Male interviewer. Twenty-three out of 51
subjects who were approached on the experimental
bridge agreed to fill in the questionnaire.
On the control bridge 22 out of 42
agreed. Five of these questionnaires were unusable,
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 experimental
group 9 out of 18 called, in the control
group 2 out of 16 called (x2
= 5.7, p <
.02). Taken in conjunction with the sexual
imagery data, this finding suggests that subjects
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 subject
called. Again, the pattern of results obtained
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 EXPERIMENTALGROUP
Interviewer
Female
Control bridge
Experimental bridge
Male
Control bridge
Experimental bridge
No. filling in
questionnaire
22/33
23/33
22/42
23/51
No. accepting
phone number
16/22
18/23
6/22
7/23
No. phoning
2/16
9/18
1/6
2/7
Usable
questionnaires
18
20
20
20
Sexual imagery
score
1.41
2.47
.61
.80
Although the results of this experiment
provide prima facie support for an emotionsexual
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 tourist
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 populations
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 differences
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 interacted
with the presence of the attractive
female experimenter to produce the sexual
imagery results obtained in this experiment.
Second, differences could exist between experimental
and control populations with respect
to personality variables. The experimental
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 personality
theory does not allow us to rule out the
combination of thrill seeking and greater sexual
imagery. Accordingly, a second experiment
was carried out in an attempt to rule
out any differential subject population explanation
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 suspension-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
Check on Arousal Manipulation
As with Experiment 1, no arousal manipulation
check was given to experimental subjects
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 males
who were approached agreed to fill in the
questionnaire. In the control group, 25 out
of 35 agreed. Of the 50 questionnaires completed,
5 were unusable because they were
incomplete. The remainder (23 experimental
and 22 control) were scored for sexual imagery
as in Expriment 1. The interrater reliability
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.
Behavioral Data
In the experimental group, 20 of the 25
subjects who agreed to the interview accepted
the interviewer's phone number. In the control
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-experimentalbridge
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 experimental
hypothesis.
Second, even if the interviewer did not
behave differentially .in experimental and control
conditions, she may have appeared differently
in the two conditions. For example,
the gestalt created by the experimental situation
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. Accordingly,
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-distress
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 investigating"
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 experimental
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 introduction.
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, describing
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 experimenter
asked both subjects to flip a coin to determine
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 proceeded
to fill out the questionnaires.
Results
A three-part questionnaire constituted the
dependent measure of this study. Part 1 (feelings
about the experiment) included a check
on the anxiety manipulation, Part 2 (feelings
toward your co-subject) included two attraceasily
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 confederate
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
Subject
expects:
Strong shock
weak shock
Female confederate
to
get strong
shock
3.17
2.42
Female confederate
to
get weak
shock
3,05
2.28
No female
confederate
3.80
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 conditions
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 receiving
a strong shock with the female cosubject
present, subjects reported significantly
less anxiety than in a control condition
(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 confederate
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 provided
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
Subject expects:
Strong shock
Weak shock
Female confederate
to get strong shock
3.7
2.9
Female confederate
to get weak shock
3.4
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 questionnaire
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 expected
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 emotionsexual
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
Subject expects:
Strong shock
Weak shock
Female confederate
to get strong shock
2.27
1.52
Femaleconfederate
to get weak shock
2.19
1,69
Note. Strongest imagery score Is 5.
outcome would seem to be particularly satisfying
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 realworld
sexual attractions might be expected to
occur.
The strong result of Experiment 3 supports
the notion that strong emotion per se
increases the subject's sexual attraction to
the female confederate. Brehm, Gatz, Goethals,
McCrimmon, and Ward (1967) obtained
results consistent with Experiment 3
in a similar study. They also had male subjects
threatened by impending electric shock
in two experimental groups and not threatened
in the control group. They obtained an
F significant at the 5% level for differences
between the threat and no-threat groups.
The theoretical implications of these results
are twofold. In the first place, they provide
additional support in favor of the theoretical
positions from which the original hypothesis
was derived: the Schachter and Singer (1962)
tradition of cognitive labeling of emotions
and the Aron (1970) conceptual framework
for sexual attraction processes. In the second
place, these data seem to be inconsistent
with (or at least unpredictable by) standard
theories of interpersonal attraction. Both the
reinforcement (Byrne, 1969) and the cognitive
consistency (Festinger, 1957; Heider,
1958) points of view would seem to predict
that a negative emotional state associated
with the object would decrease her attractiveness;
and neither theory would seem to be
easily capable of explaining the arousal of a
greater sexual emotion in the experimental
condition of the present experiments.
Although the present data support the
cognitive relabeling approach in general, they
are consistent with more than one interpretation
of the mechanics of the process. The attribution
notions of Nisbett and Valins
(1972), self-perception theory (Bern, 1972),
and role theory (Sarbin & Allen, 1968) can
all provide possible explanations for the anxiety-sexuality
link. A further possible explanation
is that heightened emotion, instead of
being relabeled as sexual, serves merely to
disinhibit the expression of preexistent sexual
SEXUAL ATTRACTION UNDER CONDITIONS OF HIGH ANXIETY 517
feelings. It is known that inhibition and sexual
defensiveness influence sexual content in
TAT stories (Clark, 1952), and this alternative
cannot be ruled out by the present data.
Yet another alternative suggested by Barclay
(personal communication, 1971), is that the
aggression-sexuality and anxiety-sexuality
links may be independent phenomena and not
necessarily subcases of a general emotionsexuality
link.
Some evidence for the mechanics of the
anxiety-sexual arousal link in the current
research may be obtained from the fear ratings
made by subjects in Experiment 3. When
subjects anticipated receiving a strong shock
and the female confederate was present during
the anxiety manipulation, subjects reported
significantly less fear than when no
potential sexual object was present (t —
2.17, d} = 19, p < .025). Since the questionnaires
were filled out in private in both
groups, it is unlikely that subjects' reporting
merely reflects appropriate behavior in the
presence of the opposite or same sex. One
possible explanation for this result is that,
having relabeled anxiety as sexual arousal, the
subject is less likely to feel anxious. A more
conclusive explanation of the mechanics of the
anxiety-sexual arousal link must await the
conclusion of present laboratory studies designed
specifically to investigate this problem.
However, regardless of theinterpretation
of the mechanics of this link, the present research
presnts the clearest demonstration to
date of its existence.
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(Received March 21, 1973)