Affective, physiological, and attitudinal consequences of audience presence

Abstract

Numerous social facilitation studies have shown that the presence of an audience increases the emission of dominant responses in a variety of learning-performance situations. Extending these notions to attitude change, the effects of audience observation should result in enhanced persuasion whenever acceptance tendencies following a persuasive message are dominant. A persuasive communication which had previously been shown to produce large acceptance responses was presented to male and female subjects who were either alone or in the presence of an audience. Contrary to social facilitation expectations, subjects indicated more acceptance of the communication when they were alone. Results of self report affect measures showed that subjects felt significantly more anxious and hostile when they were being observed. Autonomic measures (heart rate and skin conductance) tended to be unrelated to the audience manipulation, subjects’ feeling states, and their attitudinal responses. Apparently, subjects’ attitudinal responses were mediated more by competing feelings and cognitions, noncompliance tendencies, and response moderation than mechanisms of drive or arousal. © 1976, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.