Sexual Attraction Psychology

The experiment discussed in this article set out to determine if conditions of high anxiety, increased sexual attraction. They hypothesized that males who come across an attractive female while experiencing a strong emotion such as fear will find the female more attractive than by males not experiencing a strong emotion, which is also the alternative hypothesis. The independent variable is a strong emotion such as fear. This was operationalized by participants being on an unsteady bridge that would tilt and sway causing a fear of falling. The bridge had very low handrails made of cable and was 230 feet above rocks and shallow rapids. The control group was on a steady bridge that did not tilt and sway, made of wood. It was wider and was only …show more content…
Experiment one found that participants crossing the unsteady experimental bridge wrote more sexual stories based on the picture of the woman than the control group, and also more of the participants in the experimental group called the experimenter than participants in the control group thus determining that participants in the experimental group found the experimenter more attractive than participants in the control group. Experiment two found the same results. Participants in the experimental group wrote more sexual stories and called the experimenter more than participants in the control group. The third experiment found that the participants rated the female most attractive when they thought they were both going to receive the strong shock, second most when they thought they were going to get the strong shock and she was going to get the weak shock, third most when they thought they were going to get the weak shock and she was going to get the strong shock, and least attractive when they thought they were both going to receive the weak shock. The sexual imagery scores were similar to the attractive ratings. Participants who thought they were both going to receive the strong shock had the highest sexual imagery score, participants who thought they were going to get the strong shock and she was going to get the weak shock had the second highest score, participants who thought they were both going to get the …show more content…
The point of second study is unclear to me since it is so similar to the first. Also, it would be beneficial in the third experiment to introduce another group of participants who do not think they are going to receive a shock so their anxiety level is very low, but they still think the female participant will receive a shock. Rather than having heads be the strong shock and tails be the weak shock, have heads be the strong shock and tails be no shock to see if even though the participant does not have anxiety over being shocked, they might still find the female more attractive because she is in distress over being