Startle Eyeblink Modulation as a Measure of Environmental Concern
-
1
Southern Cross University, Australia
Aims: Fear appeals seek to elicit behaviour designed to reduce negative affective associated with certain images and the thoughts which they engender. They are widely employed in efforts to encourage environmentally sustainable behaviour. The success of fear appeal depends upon whether the images employed elicit negative affect in the target group. Subjective reporting may not provide accurate information on which to base intervention decisions for a variety of reasons, including social desirability. The startle eye-blink modulation paradigm is founded on evidence showing that startles are inhibited by pleasant stimuli and facilitated by unpleasant stimuli, enabling the measurement of attitudes in a number of social domains. The present study was designed to provide initial evidence for its utility in assessing stimuli relevant to environmentally sustainable action. Method: Nineteen participants completed an environmental concern questionnaire. Participants then viewed environmentally positive, environmentally negative, and neutral images (5 seconds in duration each) prior to startle elicitation by 50 milliseconds of white noise at 95 decibels, presented 3.5 seconds after image onset. Results: Positive environmental images resulted in suppression of eyeblink startle responses, relative to neutral pictures, as anticipated. However, negative environmental images also resulted in smaller eyeblink startle responses. The size of this suppressive effect for both types of images correlated with the environmental concern scale. Eyeblink startle elicited during neutral stimuli was negatively correlated with environmental concern scores. Conclusions: The influence of environmental images on eyeblink suppression is complex. Further research including unambiguously valenced pictorial cues is needed to determine the likely value of such images in fear appeals. The relation between environmental concern and eyeblink startle to neutral stimuli, though unexpected, is consistent with reports of similar effects obtained with respect to, for example, political conservatism. These data thus suggest possible links between environmental attitudes and other dimensions of social concern.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Prof. Lesley Christidis, Prof. Robert P. O’Shea, Urte Roeber, and Duncan Blair for their contributions.
Keywords:
startle eyeblink modulation,
startle reflex modulation,
environmental concern,
Electromyographic (EMG),
attitude measurement,
physiological measurement
Conference:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Wollongong, Australia, 20 Nov - 22 Nov, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Emotion
Citation:
Willis
R and
Provost
S
(2013). Startle Eyeblink Modulation as a Measure of Environmental Concern.
Conference Abstract:
ASP2013 - 23rd Annual meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.213.00050
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
05 Nov 2013;
Published Online:
05 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Royce Willis, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia, royce.willis@scu.edu.au