Role PlayingVersusDeception: The Ability of Subjects to Simulate Self-Report and Physiological Responses

Summary Three groups of subjects were told by an experimenter that they would receive painful electric shocks. Another experimenter told one of these groups to respond honestly, another of these groups to act calm despite the threat, and the third of these groups that they really would not be shocked but to deceive the first experimenter by responding as if they thought they were going to receive shocks and were afraid. A fourth group of subjects was not told about shocks and was asked to respond honestly. Dependent measures were (a) self-report of anxiety, (b) pulse rate, and (c) skin resistance. Results revealed that subjects could accurately role play as measured by self-report but not as measured by heart rate or skin resistance.