Salience of arousal as a mediator of misattribution of transferred excitation

An experiment was conducted to test Zillmann's hypothesis that misattribution of residual arousal in the excitation transfer paradigm is influenced by the salience of perceived arousal symptoms at the point of potential misattribution. Eighty subjects in a 2 x 2 x 2 design were either physiologically aroused or not aroused, and were subsequently subjected to a procedure designed to induce either positive mood (elation) or negative mood (depression). Simultaneously, they were either made self-aware or not. It was reasoned that self-focused attention wouM lead to heightened awareness of resMual arousal and that, if the salience of arousal hypothesis is correct, this wouM prevent misattribution of arousal and the resultant intensification of experienced emotion from occurring. In accord with this reasoning, it was found that aroused and self-aware subjects experienced residual arousal significantly more intensely, were less prone to misattribute it, and did not show an excitation transfer effect. These results were, however, obtained only for subjects in the negative mood condition. Research on emotion during the last two decades has been strongly influenced by Schachter's two-factor theory of emotional state (Schachter, 1964; Schachter & Singer, 1962). Basic to this theory is the assumption that an emotional state is the result of the interaction of two components: (a) diffuse physiological arousal, which influences the intensity, but not the quality, of the emotional state, and (b) a cognition that characterizes the situation in an "emotional" way and, by providing the individual with a