Two-factor theory of emotion
Also known as: Schachter-singer theory
Emotion equals physiological arousal plus a label drawn from the situation.
What it means
The two-factor theory proposes that emotional experience arises from the combination of undifferentiated physiological arousal and a cognitive label that the person assigns to that arousal based on situational cues. Arousal supplies the intensity, while interpretation supplies the quality, so identical bodily activation can be experienced as anger, euphoria, or fear depending on context. In the classic study, participants injected with adrenaline but given no explanation took on the apparent emotion of a confederate, whereas correctly informed participants did not. The theory unified the bodily emphasis of James-Lange with the role of cognition and directly motivated misattribution-of-arousal research. Its strong claim that arousal is wholly nonspecific has been qualified, but the insight that interpretation shapes feeling endures.
Examples
Heart pounding after a near-miss in traffic, you call it 'fright'; the same pounding on a roller coaster you call 'thrill.'
You step off the treadmill still flushed and breathing hard, meet someone in the lobby, and find them unusually attractive. The body's arousal came from the run; the situation supplied the label.
Three coffees before a difficult meeting leave you jittery. When your manager's questions turn sharp, you read the jitter as 'this is going badly' rather than as too much caffeine.
First described in Schachter & Singer (1962).