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Information search and attribution: Cognitive processes mediating the effect of false autonomic feedback
Author(s) -
Liebhart Ernst H.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2420090103
Subject(s) - psychology , attribution , salience (neuroscience) , cognitive psychology , cognition , social psychology , arousal , equivalence (formal languages) , context (archaeology) , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , biology
All published experiments using false autonomic feedback are reviewed and four sets of necessary conditions mediating its effects are proposed. These conditions convern (a) search for an explanation of the feedback, (b) availability of potentially explanatory context features, (c) causal attribution of the feedback, and (d) salience of the perceived causes. Conflicting results, including outcomes of cognitive desensitization, are explicable by reference to these conditions. Evidence supports the attributional theory of emotional behaviour and the assumed equivalence of actual and fictitious arousal although the boundary conditions of the latter postulate need still be explored.