The Effects of Negative Affect Arousal on Reactions to Speakers11Reprints may be requested from Richard J. Sebastian, Department of Psychology, University of Notre-Dame, Notre-Dame, Indiana 46556, The authors gratefully acknowledge the Zahm Travel Fund for providing travel support.

Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that speakers associated with negative affect and/or frustration will be negatively evaluated. As part of a colour recognition study, the participants in the first experiment listened to tape-recorded colour descriptions by a male speaker of standard English. The tape was either free from noise or punctuated by bursts of white noise. The subjects in the noisy tape condition performed …