Abstract
Thirty-two female undergraduates were presented with varied, mildly stressful incentives while the temperatures of their face and hands were recorded with infrared telethermography. There was an increase of hand skin temperature to film clips intended to generate a happy affect but cooling to threatening personal questions. There was no significant skin temperature change in response to cognitive tasks or fear eliciting film clips. Larger temperature changes occurred on the hands than on the face, and most subjects were cooler on the left side of the face and the left hand than on the right side of face and right hand.
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This research was supported by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on Psychopathology and Development and MH47077 by NIMH.
We thank Nancy Snidman, Marie Balaban, Mark Hallahan, Doreen Arcus, Eric Peterson, Hilary Sokolowski, Trina Chang, Edward Shackelford, and Alan Rimm-Kaufman for their assistance in preparing this manuscript. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their suggestions. Drawing by Eric Peterson.
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Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., Kagan, J. The psychological significance of changes in skin temperature. Motiv Emot 20, 63–78 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02251007
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02251007