Procedure

Participants signed an informed consent form upon entering the lab. Next, they completed a personality index. Half of the participants’ arms were sprayed with water and the other half was not sprayed with anything to act as a control variable. The participants whose arms were sprayed also had an oscillating fan blowing air on the sprayed arm to induce a greater chance of having goose bumps. Participants were then randomly assigned to either watch an awe-inspiring clip or a fear-inducing clip of equal length. After watching the clip, participants rated their emotions on two scales. Lastly, they were debriefed and given credit toward their psychology class research requirements.

RESULTS

A series of 2x2 ANOVAs were run on the data to test differences between reported goose bumps vs. no goose bumps, as well as fear vs. awe. There was a main effect of awe, in that people who watched the awe clip felt more awe than people who watched the fear clip, F (1, 60) = 109.55, p < .001. There was also a main effect of fear, where people who watched the fear clip felt more fear than people who watched the awe clip. F (1, 60) = 53.22, p < .001. In addition, there was an interaction between goose bumps and clip on reported fear, F (1, 60) = 8.23, p = .006.

We further analyzed the interaction through t-tests. In the awe clip group, there was no significant difference in the amount of fear experienced between those who reported goose bumps and those who did not, t (31) = 1.56, p = .130. In the fear clip group, people who reported goose bumps (M = 7.30, SD = 2.30) felt more fear than those who did not report goose bumps (M = 5.19, SD = 2.41), t (29) = -2.37,  p = .035.

A series of correlations were run on the personality factor of openness and the reported fear and awe ratings. Results showed a significant negative correlation between openness and fear,  r = -.266, p = .034.

AUTHOR CONTACT: Hayley Lambert, hayley.lambert@bobcats.gcsu.edu

Induced Goose Bumps and Openness as Predictors of Awe and Fear

Hayley M. Lambert, Zachary T. Roberts, Sarah Lasting, Francesca N. Altieri, & Caitlin A. J. Powell, PhD

INTRODUCTION

Background research

In previous research, it has been found that people experience goose bumps under a variety of circumstances, including when they report feeling cold, when they experience fear, and when they feel the emotion of awe (Schurtz et al., 2012). Additional research has suggested that if people experience goose bumps in specific contexts, they may experience heightened emotional experiences; specifically, participants who had goose bumps induced while watching an inspiring story experienced greater awe (Powell et al., 2012). It has also been suggested that the personality factor of openness would lead participants to be more receptive to the emotional experiences of awe and “aesthetic chills” (McCrae, 2007). However, not a lot of research has explicitly studied induced goose bumps, openness, and fear. The purpose of this study is to examine if goose bumps lead to higher amounts of fear or awe, and the relationship between openness, awe, and fear.

Hypotheses  •Hypotheses 1: Goose bumps would lead to higher amounts of awe when watching an awe-inspiring film clip.• Hypothesis 2: Goose bumps would lead to higher amounts of fear when watching a scary film clip.• Hypothesis 3: Openness would correlate positively with awe.• Hypothesis 4: Openness would correlate positively with fear.

METHODParticipants

Sixty-four university students, 12 males and 52 females, participated in this study.

Materials & Design

•The Sixth Sense video clip for fear clip condition•Pay it Forward video clip for awe clip condition•Spray bottle filled with water•Oscillating fan•Personality Index•Positive and Negative Affect Survey•The study was a 2 (water or no water) x 2 (awe or fear) between participant study.

DISCUSSION

Our results support that goose bumps would lead to higher amounts of fear when watching a scary film clip (Hypothesis 2), but did not support that goose bumps would lead to higher amounts of awe when watching an awe-inspiring clip (Hypothesis 1). In addition, there was no evidence supporting that openness had a positive correlation with awe; therefore, Hypothesis 3 was also not supported. The correlation between openness and fear did exist, but unexpectedly, the direction of the correlation was the opposite of Hypothesis 4: openness had a negative correlation with fear.

However, it should be noted that there were several limitations with this study. This research was conducted at a university, which limits the age range of participants. Therefore, these findings cannot be extrapolated to other age groups. Likewise, our participants were mostly female, making it difficult to determine whether there were specific gender differences. Future research could further examine the unexpected result of openness and fear. It could also examine the effects goose bumps has on various age groups and gender.

This could be applied in a real-world context to enhance the emotions of movie-goers. Horror film makers could benefit from colder movie theaters, because this research suggests the audience would experience more fear in this environment.

REFERENCES

McCrae, R. R. (2007). Aesthetic chills as a universal marker of openness to experience. Motivation and Emotion, 31(1), 5-11.

Powell, C. A. J., Howell, C., Clason, C. M., & Hill, R. (2012). Artificial awe: Creating goose bumps in a social context. Poster presented at the national

annual meeting for the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA.Schurtz, D. R., Blincoe, S., Smith, R. H., Powell, C. A.

J., Combs, D. J. Y., & Kim, S. H. (2012) Exploring the social aspects of goose bumps and their role in awe and envy. Motivation and Emotion, 36(2), 205-217.

Figure 1. Interaction of clip and goose bumps on reported fear