Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety.

Abstract

Male passersby were contacted either on a fear-arousing suspension bridge or a non-fear-arousing bridge by an attractive female interviewer who asked them to fill out questionnaires containing Thematic Apperception Test pictures. Sexual content of stories written by subjects on the fear-arousing bridge and tendency of these subjects to attempt postexperimental contact with the inter- viewer were both significantly greater. No significant differences between bridges were obtained on either measure for subjects contacted by a male interviewer. A third study manipulated anticipated shock to male subjects and an attractive female confederate independently. Anticipation of own shock but not anticipation of shock to confederate increased sexual imagery scores on the Thematic Apperception Test and attraction to the confederate. Some theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. There is a substantial body of indirect evi- dence suggesting that sexual attractions occur with increased frequency during states of strong emotion. For example, heterosexual love has been observed to be associated both with hate (James, 1910; Suttie, 193S) and with pain (Ellis, 1936). A connection be- tween "aggression" and sexual attraction is supported by Tinbergen's (1954) observa- tions of intermixed courting and aggression behaviors in various animal species, and a series of experiments conducted by Barclay have indicated the existence of a similar phe- nomenon in human behavior. In one study, Barclay and Haber (196S) arranged for stu- dents in one class to be angered by having their professor viciously berate them for hav- ing done poorly on a recent test; another class served as a control. Subsequently, both groups were tested for aggressive feelings and for sexual arousal. A manipulation check was successful, and the angered group manifested signfiicantly more sexual arousal than did controls (p < .01) as measured by explicit sexual content in stories written in response