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Misattribution, preparatory information, and speech anxiety.

¹University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

|May 1, 1988

Summary

Attributing arousal to a fake subliminal noise source, rather than accurate information, effectively reduced speech anxiety in undergraduate students. This supports the misattribution hypothesis for managing emotional responses.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Social Psychology
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

Speech anxiety is a common issue affecting public speaking performance.
Misattribution of arousal is a psychological phenomenon where individuals misinterpret physiological arousal.
Previous research suggests that labeling arousal can influence emotional experience.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare the effectiveness of misattribution versus informational manipulations in reducing speech anxiety.
To investigate whether attributing arousal to an external source (subliminal noise) alleviates anxiety more than providing accurate information.
To test the misattribution interpretation of how neutral arousal labels impact emotionality.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted with undergraduate participants.
Experiment 1 involved alleged exposure to subliminal noise with varying labels (arousing, relaxing, no effect) or accurate information.
Experiment 2 replicated key conditions and added a delay to preclude misattribution, further testing the misattribution hypothesis.

Main Results:

The alleged presence of arousing subliminal noise significantly reduced speech dysfluencies in both experiments.
Providing accurate information about arousal did not yield comparable reductions in speech anxiety.
Results consistently supported the role of misattribution in mitigating speech anxiety.

Conclusions:

Misattribution of arousal, by attributing anxiety to an external source like subliminal noise, is an effective strategy for reducing speech anxiety.
Informational manipulation alone is less effective than misattribution in ameliorating performance anxiety.
The findings reinforce the theoretical framework that how arousal is interpreted significantly influences emotional outcomes.

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