Following a first report (Laine, Eero J.) 1987: `Affective factors in language learning and teaching: a study of the `filter''.), in which a theoretical framework concerning the affective filter has been developed, L. describes an empirical study of which the main hypothesis is whether the filter is indeed, as has been proposed in reports, operational when (i) the subject's ausciety, alienation and ethnocentrism are high; (ii) his target language related attitudes are negative/indifferent; (iii) his situation related attitudes are negative/indifferent; and/or (iv) his foreign language self-concept is weak, with strong inhibitions.