Physiological Responses to a Haunted-House Threat Experience: Distinct Tonic and Phasic Effects
研究测量了156名成年人在30分钟鬼屋体验中的皮肤电活动，发现朋友在场增强紧张性唤醒，意外攻击增加相位性活动，主观恐惧与相位频率相关，且基线定向反应影响敏感化效应。
Threats elicit physiological responses, the frequency and intensity of which have implications for survival. Ethical and practical limitations on human laboratory manipulations present barriers to studying immersive threat. Furthermore, few investigations have examined group effects and concordance with subjective emotional experiences to threat. The current preregistered study measured electrodermal activity in 156 adults while they participated in small groups in a 30-min haunted-house experience involving various immersive threats. Results revealed positive associations between (a) friends and tonic arousal, (b) unexpected attacks and phasic activity (frequency and amplitude), (c) subjective fear and phasic frequency, and (d) dissociable sensitization effects linked to baseline orienting response. Findings demonstrate the relevance of (a) social dynamics (friends vs. strangers) for tonic arousal and (b) subjective fear and threat predictability for phasic arousal.