THE ROLE OF BODILY SENSATIONS IN THE EVALUATION OF SOCIAL EVENTS

Three hypotheses were tested: that feedback from facial expressions can provide the valence of an emotional reaction, that one's level of arousal can provide the felt intensity of that reaction, and that people use these sensations as information when appraising a stimulus that provides no clear valence of its own. Subjects read a story to which either understanding or anger was a possible reaction. While reading the story, all subjects were induced to hold their faces in expressions of either happiness or anger In addition, one group of subjects engaged in 2 min of vigorous exercise immediately before reading the story. Another group engaged in the exercise 90 s before reading the story. The control group read the story without having exercised. Non-aroused subjects tended to report more favorable reactions when smiling than when holding an angry expression. This difference was significant when there was a delay between the exercise and the rating task and was reduced to nonsignificance when there was no delay. These results are discussed in the context of a theory of private self-perception in which people use their bodily sensations as information when making judgments.