The Effect of Personality on Startle Response
File(s)
Date
2018Author
Xiong, Bao
Buckli, Brooke
Milakovich, Hailey
Scheidt, Abigail
Altimari, Marc
Kildow, Tori
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The emotion of fear is often accompanied by increased heart rate, sweating, and
trembling. Fear can be the result of startling events experienced in everyday life. Expression of
different personality traits may correlate with variation in the degree of physiological response to
a startle stimulus. The purpose of this study was to determine if personality is a moderating
factor in startle response following a frightening stimuli. We hypothesized that those higher in
neuroticism would have more dramatic physiological responses, while those higher in
extraversion and openness to experience would display a smaller physiological response.
Thirty-one participants completed the Big Five personality test prior to listening to a
fear-provoking auditory stimuli. Analysis of experimental results revealed that participants
scoring higher in extraversion exhibited a significantly greater degree of muscle contraction (p =
0.039) and larger increase in heart rate (p = 0.007) in response to a startle stimulus. Participants
scoring higher in agreeableness also showed a significantly larger increase in heart rate (p =
0.003).
Subject
Personality
Startle Stimulus
electrodermal activity (EDA)
ElectroCardioGraphy (ECG)
ElectroMyoGraphy (EMG)
Heart Rate
Auditory
Fear Response
Big Five
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/81982Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2018