A famous study conducted by social psychologists Aron and Dutton, found that a female experimenter was most likely to be called by participants after they had walked across a scary, narrow bridge as opposed to after they had walked across a normal, stable bridge. This finding can be most easily explained by ____.

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The finding can be best explained by excitation transfer, which suggests that physiological arousal from one experience can be transferred to another unrelated experience, amplifying emotional reactions. In this case, participants' heightened physiological arousal from crossing the scary, narrow bridge may have transferred to the subsequent interaction with the female experimenter, making them more likely to call her. The Yerkes-Dodson law refers to the relationship between arousal and performance; sham refers to a fake treatment used in research; catharsis refers to the release of emotional tension through expression or action. None of these concepts accurately explain the findings of Aron and Dutton's study.

A Famous Study Conducted by Social Psychologists Aron and Dutton