Fear and autonomic arousal.

Abstract

Thirty-two female undergraduates were classified as high fear (HF) or low fear (LF) of spiders. After reduction of orienting responses to pictures of neutral animals, Ss in the experimental condition were shown pictures of a spider, and Ss in the control condition were shown pictures of a snake. Using the response to the last neutral stimulus as a baseline, HF Ss in the experimental condtion when first shown a spider yielded greater GSRs [galvanic skin responses] than other groups. This increase in GSR responding for HF experimental Ss was, for 2 more trials, maintained relative to Ss in the control condition. HF Ss in the experimental condition also yielded GSRs of greater duration than all other groups when first shown the spider stimulus.