Figure 1.

Valence and arousal values of emotional pictures. Valence (1, very unpleasant; 5, neutral; 9, very pleasant) and arousal (1, calm; 9, excited) ratings were plotted for each image in men's and women's paradigms. Values assigned to unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral sets were taken from IAPS data. Additionally, images from several internet sources were included in the pleasant group to strengthen valence of women's pleasant subset and to introduce pleasant pictures explicitly related to human somatic experience. Valence and arousal ratings for these pictures were obtained in a pilot study with 10 men and 10 women. As a result, arousal and valence dimensions were matched, and comparable emotional manipulation was obtained in both genders.