First, consider an experiment which was conducted by Speisman et al. Study participants viewed various films which induced anxiety. One film showed a variety of workshop accidents. Of these accidents, the most gruesome was of a wood board being caught in a circular saw. The board shot out towards the worker and impaled his abdomen. He then laid there on the floor and passed away. The other film showed a ritual which was developed during the stone age, where young boys had their genitalia cut deeply. In the study, a manipulation of cognitive appraisal was completed by varying the soundtrack accompanying the film. In one manipulation, denial was produced by playing a soundtrack that explained the ritual in the incision film was not a painful
