Abstract
It has been reported that false physiological feedback (FPFB), such as an increased or decreased heart rate (HR), modulates the attractiveness of images and the emotional intensity of facial stimuli. It is not clear, however, whether false physiological feedback impacts on valence or arousal. In this study, we addressed this issue by presenting auditory FPFB to participants while they were performing emotional ratings of facial stimuli. Twenty-two healthy undergraduate students participated in this study. While they were presented with true HR feedback or false feedback of increased or decreased HR, they rated their valence and arousal on the facial stimuli using the Affect Grid (Russell et al., 1989), by which valence and arousal ratings can be simultaneously obtained. We found that FPFB decreases arousal ratings as compared with true feedback. On the other hand, valence ratings were not influenced by FPFB. These results suggested that FPFB influences arousal.
