Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer proposed the two-factor theory in 1962 after an experiment in which participants were injected with epinephrine, then either told, misinformed, or not told at all what physical effects to expect, and placed alongside a confederate acting either euphoric or angry. Participants left without an honest explanation for their own arousal tended to adopt the confederate's emotional display as their own explanation for how they felt.
Facts
Core ClaimAn emotion requires both a state of physiological arousal and a cognitive label for that arousal, drawn from cues in the immediate situation; the same bodily arousal can be experienced as different emotions depending on how a person interprets its cause. 1 Connections
Held Differently
Keeps Cannon-Bard's claim that arousal alone does not specify which emotion is felt, but adds that a cognitive label, drawn from the immediate situation, determines which emotion arousal is experienced as.
Associated With
This experiment is the original empirical study behind the Schachter-Singer two-factor theory of emotion.
Developed By
In Branch
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
Wikimedia FoundationSchachter and Singer, 1962Quote, Schachter and Singer, 1962
The theory was put forth by researchers Stanley Schachter and Jerome E. Singer in a 1962 article.
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