Two-Factor Theory of Emotion Lab (2D)

Physiological Stimulus

Injection dose (arousal drive) 25%

Arousal rise/decay rate τ 2.5s

Situational Appraisal

Awareness of Cause

Felt Emotion

Current label

Neutral

Arousal

25%

Heart rate

80 bpm

Valence

0.00

Misattribution m

1.00

How it works

Schachter & Singer's two-factor theory of emotion (1962) says a felt emotion needs two ingredients: unexplained physiological arousal, and a cognitive appraisal of the situation that labels it. Arousal alone (e.g. from an injected stimulant) is emotionally neutral — the mind searches the environment for a plausible cause and borrows its emotional colour.

Arousal (leaky integrator, physiological):
  dA/dt = (S − A) / τ        A ∈ [0,1], S = injection dose

Felt valence (only manifests once aroused):
  V = V_target(appraisal) · m · A
  m = 0.30  if informed about the injection's real cause
  m = 1.00  if uninformed → arousal is misattributed to the situation

Emotion label = nearest octant on Russell's (1980) valence-arousal
circumplex, atan2(A_c, V) in 45° sectors.

Injection dose — sets the target physiological arousal S the leaky integrator chases.
τ slider — how fast arousal rises/decays toward the dose (adrenaline pharmacokinetics).
Appraisal buttons — the situational cue (a euphoric, neutral, or angry confederate in the original experiment) that supplies a candidate label.
Awareness toggle — informed subjects correctly attribute arousal to the injection and barely adopt the confederate's mood; uninformed subjects misattribute it and swing hard toward the appraisal.

The marker on the circumplex plane tracks (valence, arousal) live; the pulsing core at the centre visualises heart rate, and the drifting particle swarm's spread grows with arousal intensity. Drag the plane to pan and scroll (or pinch) to zoom, exactly like panning a real spatial view.

drag to pan · scroll to zoom

High arousal Low arousal Positive valence Negative valence