The characteristics of electrorheological (ER) responses in an emulsion system have been examined for the first time. The emulsion system consists of a chlorinated paraffin oil and a silicone oil; these two liquids have similar dielectric constants, but the former liquid is 1000 times more conductive than the latter liquid. The mismatch in electric properties between the dispersed phase and the dispersing medium can be reversed in an emulsion by inverting the phase distribution. Transient ER responses in the emulsion system have been studied over a range of shear rates following step changes (on/off) of an external dc electric field. The relative response strength characterizing the ER effect increases with the field strength and with the volume fraction of silicone oil, but decreases with increasing shear rate imposed. The paraffin oil-in-silicone oil emulsion exhibits a response much stronger than that observed in the phase-reversed silicone oil-in-paraffin oil emulsion. No negative ER response is detected in the silicone oil-in-paraffin oil emulsion. With an optical microscope, very different microscopic response characteristics are observed for the phase-reversed emulsions under static conditions, and this can be explained according to the leaky dielectric liquid model of Taylor. Copyright 1997 Academic Press. Copyright 1997Academic Press