Conditioning Vicarious Affective Arousal

Abstract

GSR reactivity, serving as a physiological measure of affective arousal, was instigated and conditioned when Ss observed a performer consistently failing at a motor task. Experimental groups who were told that shock was contingent upon the performer's failure manifested no more vicarious affective reactions than groups observing failure only. Groups observing failure consistently responded with more GSRs than groups observing task success.