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Think about some of the best dates you’ve ever been on. Or, if you haven’t been on a whole lot of dates, think about some of the classic date ideas that you see in movies or on television. What comes to mind? Going to an amusement park and riding the rollercoasters? Going to a haunted house around Halloween? Taking a day trip to the local ski mountain? What do all of these things have in common?
They’re thrilling, they get your heart rate up, and they get you out of your comfort zone. It actually may be for those reasons exactly that the date was a success and you and the person you went on the date with felt an attraction to each other. This phenomenon is called the suspension bridge effect, and it might just be the key to saving your relationship.
Now think about what it feels like to be aroused by someone. Maybe your palms get sweaty, or your heart starts to beat a little faster, or you may even start to feel a bit out of breath. These are all-natural physiological reactions that can be the result of arousal. However, many of these same responses can also be the psychosomatic results of the fear response centers in your brain firing off. So, when you’re looking into the eyes of that special someone just before the rollercoaster takes off, is your heart beating faster because you’re falling in love with that person or because you’re slightly afraid of rollercoasters?
Interestingly enough, this phenomenon has been studied, and it seems that people may actually often mistake feelings of fear for feelings of arousal. The suspension bridge effect, which is more commonly referred to as misattribution of arousal (even though that name is far less fun), may have influenced you at some point, may have even led to you falling in love, and, if your relationship is starting to feel a bit bland, might be the key to bringing that spark back.
What Is Misattribution of Arousal?
Research on the misattribution of arousal started in 1962 with a series of experiments conducted by Schachter and Singer. The two researchers based the studies on the idea that the feeling of arousal could be caused by some other physiological stressor other than attraction. From there, they developed the two-factor theory of emotion. These are the hypotheses associated with this theory:
- If a person experiences a state of arousal for which they have no immediate explanation, they will label this state and describe their feelings in terms of the cognitions available to them at the time.
- If a person experiences a state of arousal for which they have an appropriate explanation (“I feel this way because I have just received an injection of adrenaline”), then they will be unlikely to label their feelings in terms of the alternative cognitions available.
- If a person is put in a situation, which in the past could have made them feel an emotion, they will react emotionally or experience emotions only if they are in a state of physiological arousal.
From these hypotheses, it’s easy to see where the idea for the misattribution of arousal came from. Someone has had a past experience with arousal that has had correlating physiological responses (increased heart rate, shortness of breath, perspiration, etc.). So, if they have the same set of physiological responses and attraction to another person is a possible explanation, they will most likely attribute those responses to attraction.
Why Is It Called the Suspension Bridge Effect?
The name for the suspension bridge effect came from a series of experiments conducted in 1974 by Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron. The parameters of the experiment included an “attractive” female (although I’m not sure why that word was included in the description because attractiveness is subjective) waiting either at the end of a sturdy bridge (which is not scary) or a suspension bridge (which is scarier). A series of male subjects would then walk across the bridge toward the female.
Once the males reached the female waiting on the other side of the bridge, the female would ask each of them to do a Thematic Apperception Test, which basically involves looking at a bunch of ambiguous images and making up stories based on what you see. The images were purposely selected to not be sexual whatsoever. Afterward, the stories that the males produced were analyzed to see if there was any sexual content.
After the Thematic Apperception Test had been completed, the female would then give her phone number to each of the males and tell them that she would be available to answer any questions about her project. Dutton and Aron wanted to see whether or males who walked across the suspension bridge would be more likely to call the female (due to their perceived attraction to her) or not.
As it turned out, the males who walked across the suspension bridge were found to be more likely to call the female than the males who walked across the sturdy bridge. This difference was attributed to misattribution of arousal by the researchers, who claimed that the males who had anxiety about crossing the suspension bridge were misattributing their physiological responses to attraction to the woman.
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The researchers also did the same experiment with the sexes reversed, meaning that the person giving the Thematic Apperception Test and giving out their phone number was male, and the subjects were female. In this experiment, there was no significant difference in the results from the two bridges.
There’s Nothing Wrong With Tricking Yourself
Now, the suspension bridge effect may have sounded like a negative aspect of the human psyche up to this point. Maybe you’re worried that misattribution of arousal was the reason you found your current partner attractive rather than an actual deep-seated attraction to that person. Well, while that may or may not be the case, there’s no reason you shouldn’t keep using the suspension bridge effect to benefit your relationship!
If you’ve been feeling like your relationship is getting a bit stale, maybe you should consider using the suspension bridge effect to try to bring that spark back to your love life. A lot of the time, relationships tend to get boring when you’re doing the same safe, boring things every single day. It also might help to spice things up in the bedroom every once in a while.
Not only is spontaneity important to maintaining an enjoyable relationship, but you can actually trick your brain into feeling arousal and attraction towards your partner by doing fear-inducing activities. It may sound strange to say that you’re tricking your brain into being attracted to your partner. But if it helps you to have a happier and more loving relationship, who cares?
Take your partner on a hot air balloon ride. Being that high up in the air will induce fear and will probably make you think you’re feeling butterflies for your partner all over again. Go on a partner ziplining tour. Dangling above the jungle is a great way to feel anxiety, which you might just mistake for feelings of arousal.
Ever wonder why escape rooms have become such a popular date idea recently? Yeah, it’s a great way to leverage the suspension bridge effect. Whatever you choose to do to bring the spark back to your love life, make sure it’s thrilling, exciting, fun, and maybe a little bit fear-inducing.
