Surprise versus suspense in the production of stress reaction.

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the relationship between duration of harm anticipation and magnitude of the associated stress response. 2 versions of a film portraying 3 wood-mill accidents were constructed. In the short anticipation, or "surprise" version, the 1st 2 accidents occurred virtually without warning; in the long anticipation, or "suspense" version, they were preceded by 20-30 sec. of clue-furnishing scenes. Results indicated that long anticipation was more stressful than short anticipation, consistently producing higher levels of autonomic disturbance. Moreover, most of the physiological stress reaction occurred during the periods of anticipation, rather than during the actual confrontations with accident scenes.