Abstract
Many studies conducted in real-life stress situations are inconsistent with Schachter's affiliation theory derived from laboratory studies. This study aimed to clarify the issues by examining the effects of fear and embarrassment-inducing situations on affiliative choice behavior. Sixty male subjects were individually threatened with either the prospect of putting their finger into water, the prospect of electric shock, or the prospect of sucking on infantile oral objects. The affiliative choice behavior was measured by having the subjects go either to an empty room or to a room where another subject was ostensibly waiting. The major findings were as follows: (a) embarrassment manipulation was effective on self-ratings but not on affiliative choice behavior, (b) nonaffiliators (58%) scored higher on the Manifest Anxiety Scale, and showed shorter choice response latency than affiliators. The results suggest that Schachter's hypothesis is limited to cognitive aspects of affiliation and that the need for cognitive clarity may be an important factor in accounting for affiliative behavior. These results were discussed in relation to Rofe's utility affiliation theory.
