Effects of Lighting-Induced Arousal on the Magnitude of Goal Valence

Abstract

Ecent evidence has indicated that unlabeled residual arousal capable of enhancing the psychological impact of potential gative outcomes. Three investigations further tested this relamship by examining the effect of environmental lighting, an robtrusive and concurrent source of arousal, on appraisals of avoidance goal In the first, subjects were given the opportuty to avoid an aversive noise outcome under either dim or ight illumination. As predicted, ratings of noise unpleasantss increased with the level of illumination. In the second study, further conditions were added to the design in which subjects re given explicit arousal-labeling information. In support of e interaction prediction, noise unpleasantness evaluations rre low and uniform with the provision of labelinging information reliably increased as a positive function of lighting level thout it. In the final experiment, the exctent and nature of the ousal, proposed to be mediating the relationship between chting and goal valence, were examined.