Approach-Avoidance and Affiliation as Functions of the Emotion-Eliciting Quality of an Environment

It was hypothesized that approach toward an environment and the desire to affiliate there are influenced by the emotion-eliciting quality of that environment. In two studies, undergraduates (N = 200, 310) rated these two behaviors in response to settings shown via color photographic slides. As predicted, approach toward the setting was determined by (a) a main effect of its pleasantness, (b) an interaction effect such that approach varied directly with arousing quality of the setting in pleasant settings, but inversely with arousing quality in unpleasant settings (with a significant reversal, however, from moderate to high arousal in unpleasant settings), and (c) a weak inverted-U relationship with arousing quality in neutrally pleasant-unpleasant settings such that approach was greatest in moderately arousing settings.

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