Our laboratory has shown that emotion induced by picture-viewing modulates spinal (nociceptive flexion reflex), supraspinal (skin conductance response, heart rate acceleration), and subjective (pain report) nociceptive reactions – an effect that accounts for 52% of the variance in the reactions. In previous studies, pictures were chosen to manipulate affective valence (unpleasant, neutral, pleasant), but not arousal. In studies of acoustic startle reflex modulation (a non-nociceptive defense response) an interaction of affective valence and arousal best characterizes the influence of emotion. Specifically, affective valence determines the direction of modulation (pleasant affects are inhibitory and unpleasant affects are facilitatory), whereas arousal (emotional intensity) determines the degree of modulation. However, it is unknown whether this interaction characterizes the influence of emotion on nociceptive responses. In the present study (N=25), pictures of varying contents were presented to independently manipulate valence [unpleasant (loss, attack), neutral (household objects), pleasant (food, erotica)] and arousal [low (neutral), medium (loss, food), high (attack, erotica)]. During picture-viewing, noxious electric stimulations were randomly delivered to the sural nerve (balanced across picture contents). Nociceptive reactions to each noxious stimulus were assessed, standardized within individuals, and averaged by picture content. Following every picture, participants also rated their affective valence and arousal reactions to ensure that emotion was effectively manipulated. Results suggest that affective valence and arousal were independently manipulated. Moreover, the four nociceptive reactions were modulated in parallel, with picture content explaining 47% of the variance. As expected, pleasant pictures inhibited reactions and unpleasant pictures enhanced them; however, the degree of inhibition and facilitation was only statistically significant during the most arousing pictures (erotic and attack, respectively). These data suggest that affective valence and arousal independently contribute to nociception modulation and provide further evidence that ECON procedures can be used to study modulatory mechanisms.