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two factor theory
You interpret your bodily signals through social context.
Physiological arousal is ambiguous, and you use your environment to identify what the emotion means.
In a 1962 experiment, participants injected with adrenaline experienced heart palpitations but only reported feeling 'happy' or 'angry' depending on whether a confederate in the room acted that way. The brain searches for a situational cause for the physical sensation.
You don't know why you feel the way you do.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Schachter and Singer, 1962, Psychological Review
- What the check found
- The claim accurately summarizes the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion as presented in the cited 1962 study, though the study's original experimental findings have faced significant replication challenges in later years.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.