Cross-modality matches suggest anticipated stage fright a multiplicative power function of audience size and status

Subjects adjusted the sound pressure level of a 1,000-Hz tone or the luminance of a 10° target on a translucent screen to match their anticipated subjective tension in performing before audiences represented by 1–16 color slides of old or young males or females. Consistent with a new theory of social impact, “tension” was a multiplicative power function of the number texponent ≅ .6) of people in the audience and their ages, with older t37-year-old) audiences generating 2–3 times the tension of younger Iteen-age) audiences. Male audiences elicited 50%-40% more tension than females.

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