The article co-written by Donald G. Dutton and Arthur P. Aron entitled, "Some Evidence For Heightened Sexual Attraction Under Conditions of High Anxiety", provides a vast amount of intriguing information. The structure and nature of the studies illustrated by the article create a rich environment for in-depth critical analysis. In using this supportive environment as a spring board for intellectual observation, my goals for this research paper consist of three main objectives. The first is to render a thorough summary of the heightened sexual attraction studies conducted by the authors. Secondly, I would like to offer some structural suggestions which might have helped to widen the scope of the studies' results. And finally, with the help of literature covered in other classes, endeavor to explain the studies' results and their possible implications about the nature of early heterosexual relations.

The basis of the heightened sexual attraction studies rests on collected indirect evidence which has illustrated a possible link between states of strong emotion and increased sexual attraction. Most of the studies which the authors use as models for their own experiments deal with the connection between aggression and sexual attraction. One of the pioneering researchers in this field of study, a psychologist named Barclay, "explained his findings in terms of a special aggression-sexuality link and has cited as support for his position Freud's (1938) argument that prehistoric man had to physically dominate his potential mates and also a study by Clark (1952) in which increased sexual arousal produced by viewing slides of nudes yielded increased aggression in TAT responses." (Dutton & Aron, p.510) However, some of the earlier studies steered away from the concept of an isolated link between aggression and sexual arousal. Instead, these studies endeavored only to substantiate a link between various strong residual emotions, possibly created through intense role playing, and sexual arousal. For the most part, the studies deliver overwhelming evidence concerning both human beings and other animal species as well, which suggests that the development of strong emotions, especially those considered ambiguous ( including aggression) , are oftentimes accompanied by increased sexual arousal. Utilizing the results from these studies as a secure foundation, the authors constructed new experiments with which to test the hypothesis that human sexual arousal/attraction would be heightened in environments that induced anxiety and/or fear in the subjects of the experiments. The authors themselves elaborate further on the purpose behind these experiments early in the article. The present series of experiments is designed to test the notions that an attractive female is seen as more attractive by males who encounter her while they experience a strong emotion (fear) than by males not experiencing a strong emotion. (Dutton & Aron, P. 511)

The entire study consists of three experiments. The first experiment attempts to verify, within a natural environment, the proposed hypothesis of an emotional-sexual attraction link. The following experiments are laboratory and field studies which attempt to effectively clarify the results of the initial experiment. The initial experiment was conducted in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada over the Capilano River. More specifically, two bridges which contrasted severely in terms of observed safety, were chosen to be the controlled and non-controlled test sites. The experimental bridge was the Capilano Canyon Suspension Bridge, a five- foot-wide, 450-foot-long, bridge constructed of wooden boards attached to wire cables that ran from one side to the other of the Capilano Canyon. The bridge has many arousal-inducing features such as a tendency to tilt, sway, and wobble, creating the impression that one is about to fall over the side; very low handrails of wire cable which contribute to this impression; and a 230-foot drop to rocks and shallow rapids below the bridge." (Dutton & Aron, P.511) The "controlled" bridge pales in comparison to the first. This bridge was firmer, wider, constructed entirely of "heavy cedar" and hovered only 10 ft. above the main river. The subjects selected for the first experiment were males (not accompanied by female companions) ranging from the ages of 18 to 35 years old. From these men, a control group and an experimental group was formed. As each group crossed their respective bridge, an attractive female interviewer (experiment confederate) asked the subjects if they would help her conduct an experiment concerning the effects of scenic attractions on creative expression. Those who accepted were given a "short questionnaire" which subtlety included a TAT, or thematic aperception test. In the test, the subjects were required to write a "brief, dramatic" story pertaining to the picture of a "young woman covering her face with one hand and reaching with the other". (Dutton & Aron, P. 511) Later, the stories were rated for manifest sexual content. The results of the experiment revealed that the TAT's of the "experimental" group had a greater average sexual mental imagery score than those of the controlled group. Furthermore, the results also illustrated that, between the two groups, members of the "experimental" group were more likely to telephone the attractive female interviewer and make further inquiries about the nature and results of her fictitious experiment. The subsequent experiments conducted by the authors were added to eliminate one major result inhibiting factor which wasn't controlled for in the first experiment. This factor was the possibility of different subject populations on the two bridges.

"This difference in subject populations may have affected the results in two ways. The experimental subjects may have been less able to phone the experimenter (if they were in town on a short-term tour) and less likely to hold out the possibility of further liaison with her.........Second, differences could exist between experimental and control populations with respect to personality variables. The experimental population might be more predisposed to thrill seeking and therefore more willing to chance phoning a strange female to effect a liaison. (Dutton & Aron, P. 513)

Much to their surprise and delight, these following experiments, which both controlled for the effect of this phenomenon, only proved to solidify their original anxiety-sexual attraction link hypothesis. In each case, the "experimental" group always surpassed the control group in measured sexual arousal when confronted with an anxiety inducing environment. Overall, I couldn't find many concrete flaws with the manner in which the authors conducted their study on the links between anxiety and sexual attraction. However, their tendency to observe this phenomenon strictly as it pertained to heterosexuals seemed to be self-limiting. By examining this interesting relationship solely on a heterosexual level, the study is limited to observing this phenomenon only within the confines of a socially influenced relationship. Consequently, the actual existence of a true link between strong emotions (i.e. aggression) and sexual arousal could possibly be distorted by the intervention of preconceived stereotypical gender roles as well as the socially dictated notions of heterosexual relationships and their function in western culture. Socially dictated notions and preconceived gender roles would be less likely to inhibit the test results in a homosexual study because these types of relationship aren't nearly as accepted as the former. An example of the effects which socially dictated notions and preconceived gender roles have on heterosexual relationships can be witnessed through the ridiculous beliefs of some people that women actually want to be dominated (both sexually and otherwise) by men. And furthermore, that it's socially acceptable to recognize relationships (heterosexual) as hierarchical structures in which men have a biological claim the "driver's seat" and women must merely fade into the background. Notions of this nature, although seemingly outdated, still permeate (subconsciously at least) much of western culture, and could probably prove itself to be a respectable obstacle of accurate results in a study of this nature.

The idea of socially influenced relationships, and stereotypical gender roles points to another interesting aspect of the study conducted by the authors. In analyzing the results of the study, curiosity related to the cause of these results soon follows. What, if in fact the cause can be narrowed to a single factor, could be the source of such a relationship? Is this relationship grounded in human biology, or perhaps the result of subtle social influence? Discussions which have taken place in my history class this term favor the latter of the afore mentioned possibilities. This class, HC 408 "Perspectives on Freedom", is a colloquia requirement that's taught by Prof. Fracchia. The selected literature for the class ranges from works by Franz Kafka to Martin Luther King Jr. The main theme of the class, as the course title indicates, concerns the various perspectives on freedom which people have held throughout history and along with the continual evolution of the idea of freedom. In one particular discussion, the class examined a piece from a social-feminist writer name Juliet Mitchel. Her essay addressed certain causes of women's oppression in western culture and possible ways to better understand and therefore attempt to eliminate this oppression. A considerable amount of her essay spoke of the relationships which have existed between men and women. Moreover, she used history to illustrate that their relationship has always been one of extreme domination and subordination, especially in areas of sexuality. She mentioned further that throughout history women have been acknowledged as little more than sexual objects of men. A medium, if you will, for the release of sexual tension and other frustrations as well. In one particular passage, Mitchel writes:

Engels commented accurately: 'Monogamy does not by any means make it's appearance in history as the reconciliation of man and woman, still less as the highest form of such a reconciliation. On the contrary, it appears as the subjugation of one sex by the other, as the proclamation of a conflict between the sexes entirely unknown hitherto in prehistoric times. (Mitchel, P. 36)

Implied in this passage is the existence of an innate antagonism between men and women that has existed since the landing of Columbus, and even before, which is still interwoven into the relationships between the sexes in our modern society (although to a lesser degree). Early societal constructions of this relationship deemed males the defending, providing and punishing figure, whereas the female was reduced to a mere tool for sexual satisfaction and procreation. Consequently in western society, men have always been portrayed as and exalted for being in "control" at all times and therefore, feel as if this is the natural way. If one chooses to accept this rational, the implications of the anxiety-sexual arousal link can be seen in an entirely new light.

Imagine that the anxiety inducing environment which the authors created to prove their hypothesis is actually viewed as a threat by the "experimental" male subjects because they have no direct control over the feelings which it evokes in them. The environment (terrifying suspension bridge) creates stress, fear and many other humbling emotions in the subjects, which makes them feel inferior, vulnerable and weak (emotions which society has declared "uncharacteristic for men"). Soon, they are confronted by an attractive-female (sex-object) and a heightened sexual attraction soon follows. But, if one replaces the "sexual attraction" with "medium for the release of sexual and/or other frustrations", it becomes plausible that what the authors viewed as a mere increase in sexual attraction was actually more. It becomes an increase in the desire, based on the socially influenced schema of gender roles, to compensate for a feeling of weakness and inferiority through some form of domination; in this case it's sexual. In a situation as such, the observed results from the experiments can't be validated in any form. The existence of a true link (biological link) between anxiety and sexual arousal can no longer be legitimately implied. Rather, one is forced to witness the effects of long term societal conditioning and cultivation of gender roles/stereotypes. Both phenomena acting in unison, render the foundation and results of the authors' hypothesis ambiguous and also seem to illustrate a saddening reality about the conceptualized sexual relationships between men and women.

Undoubtedly, more research must be conducted before it will become possible to ascertain the source(s) which lie behind this observed link between states of strong emotion and sexual arousal. The unfolding of this phenomenon promises to be interesting and possibly indicative of an undiscovered relationship between human biology and social conditioning. Whatever the case may be, it seems rather certain that new insights into the dimensions of human nature are definitely within reach.