More recently:

Title: Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor: An "experimental 
ethnography."
Author: Cohen, Dov; Nisbett, Richard E.; Bowdle, Brian F.; Schwarz, Norbert
Author Affiliation: U Illinois Urbana-Champaign(Champaign), Dept of Psychology, 
Champaign, IL, US.
Appears In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol 70(5), May 1996, 
945-960.
Publisher Info: American Psychological Association, US. 1996. 


were successful in inducing anger  by having a confederate insult the 
participant by bumping into him and calling him an asshole as he arrived for 
the experiment.

Bill Scott

---------------------------------

>>> <sbl...@ubishops.ca> 11/12/09 10:10 AM >>>
On 12 Nov 2009 at 5:03, Bourgeois, Dr. Martin wrote[concerning 
Schachter and Singer's experiment]:

> They did, but they also had subjects fill out a questionnaire including 
> questions (not accusations) about
> their mothers' sex lives. One question was something like "with how many men 
> besides your father has your
> mother has sex?" and din't allow 'none' as a response option. 

I recall, "Check which members of your family the following 
apply to [no choice of "none']: "Seems to need psychiatric care"; 
"Doesn't wash or bath regularly".

However, I don't recall that they provided the entire 
questionnaire, at least in their published article in Psychological 
Review, but just gave examples from it.  It seemed to me that it  
was so over-the-top that I had difficulty believing it would make 
subjects angry. More likely, I would think it would elicit giggling. 
And, if I recall correctly, they did not get strong effects, and the 
subjects did not actually get angry (their ad hoc explanation 
being that they subjects really were angry but didn't want to 
show it for fearing of losing marks, or points, or something].

There was an even more over-the-top attempt to manipulate 
emotions some years earlier.  Ax (1953) attempted to induce 
anger by having subjects who arrived for the experiment be 
verbally and physically abused by the (confederate) lab 
technician, berated for being late, and handled roughly. One of 
the subjects was reported to have said something like "I was so 
angry I wanted to punch him in the nose".

Fear manipulation was even worse. The subjects were hooked 
up to a fake polygraph and given a small electric shock. When 
the subject reported this, the confederate flipped a switch which 
caused a shower of flying sparks, and shouted "Don't move! 
There's a dangerous short-circuit".  One subjected reportedly 
said that he thought he was going to die.

Ax obtained only minor physiological differences between anger 
and fear as a result of all this. The good old days indeed.

Stephen


Ax,  AF(1953). The physiological differentiation between fear 
and anger in humans.Psychosom Med. 1953 Sep-
Oct;15(5):433-4


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Stephen L. Black, Ph.D.          
Professor of Psychology, Emeritus   
Bishop's University               
 e-mail:  sbl...@ubishops.ca
2600 College St.
Sherbrooke QC  J1M 1Z7
Canada
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