on implicit evaluations melissa j. ferguson cornell university

On implicit evaluations

Melissa J. Ferguson

Cornell University

On implicit evaluations:“Phil” effects with “Tony” processing

constraints

Melissa J. Ferguson

Cornell University

Implicit attitudes

• Attitudes toward stimuli that are generated spontaneously and sometimes nonconsciously

Implicit attitudes

• Attitudes toward stimuli that are generated spontaneously and sometimes nonconsciously

• Typically generated within milliseconds after perceiving the respective stimuli

• Morris et al., 1999 • Murphy & Zajonc, 1993• Niedenthal, 1990• Öhman, 1986• Whalen et al., 1998• Winkielman et al., 2005

Implicit attitudes are functional • Deliver important information about what is

desirable or harmful quickly and spontaneously

– Campbell, 1974– Damasio, 1999– Dennett, 1995– Fazio, 1989– Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1990– LeDoux, 1996– Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956

Implicit attitudes are functional

• Implicit attitudes are also sensitive to the current relevance of the stimulus

• They reflect not only whether a stimulus has been desirable on average, but whether it is particularly desirable at that very moment, given our goals

– Seibt, Häfner, & Deutsch (in press)– Sherman et al. (2003)– Ferguson & Bargh (2004)

Do they reflect current desirability? • Seibt et al. (in press)

– Will hunger influence implicit attitudes toward food?

sandwich wonderful

sandwich horrible

Do they reflect current desirability? • Seibt et al. (in press)

– Will hunger influence implicit attitudes toward food?

sandwich wonderful

sandwich horrible

Difference in speed of response

Implicit positivity toward food-related stimuli

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Flowers Food items

HungrySatedSeibt et al. (in press)

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Implicit positivity toward food-related stimuli

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Seibt et al. (in press)

Do they reflect current desirability? • Ferguson & Bargh (2004)

– Will playing a word game influence people’s implicit attitudes toward game-relevant stimuli?

• If they have a goal to do well vs. not

• If they are finished vs. still playing the game

Implicit positivity toward game-relevant stimuli

Ferguson and Bargh (2004)

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No Goal Achievement Goal

Finished Still Playing

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Implicit evaluative readiness

• When a goal is active, we implicitly evaluate goal-relevant stimuli more positively

– Without much conscious thought or intention, we become evaluatively ready to pursue our current goal

• Two questions about this phenomenon

Question 1 - How conscious?• Evaluative readiness seems functional because it

means that we can assess the current relevance of a stimulus in the blink of an eye

– Within 150 ms after we encounter a stimulus, we have constructed it in a way that facilitates our current goal

• (e.g., Lewin, 1936; Glenberg, 1997; Smith & Semin, 2004)

– But how much conscious deliberation and thought is actually required for this kind of readiness?

Question 1 - How conscious?• In all previous studies, even though the attitudes

were implicit, the goal was fully conscious

– When in a conscious goal state, people ruminate about the goal (e.g., Bandura, 1997; Oettingen & Gollwitzer, 2001, 2002)

– Participants may have implicitly evaluated the goal-relevant stimuli as positive only because they were thinking consciously about their utility beforehand

– Do people become evaluative ready even for a nonconsciously activated goal?

Question 1 - How conscious?

• Although the goal-relevant stimuli were evaluated in an implicit fashion, they were still supraliminally presented and thus consciously perceived

– Participants may have employed strategic, goal-relevant processing at some point (e.g., Klauer, Roßnagel, Musch, 1997 )

– Does evaluative readiness emerge even in response to subliminal stimuli?

Question 2 - How functional?

• Should everyone show this kind of implicit preparedness?

– Research would suggest that only those who are successful at a goal should show implicit evaluative readiness to pursue it

Question 2 - How functional?• Implicit attitudes reflect behavioral tendencies

– The more (and the more often) one shows implicit positivity toward a stimulus, the more that person should approach it

• (e.g., Custers & Aarts, 2007; Fazio & Olsen, 2003; Rydell & McConnell, 2006; Petty, Fazio, & Briñol, in press; Wittenbrink & Schwarz, 2007)

– Those who show increased implicit positivity toward goal-relevant stimuli when a goal is active should be more likely to “approach” them and succeed at the goal

– Evaluative readiness for a goal as an implicit signature of successful pursuit of that goal

Question 2 - How functional?• Implicit attitudes also increase respective behaviors

– Increased implicit positivity toward a stimulus should increase motivation and approach behaviors toward it

• (e.g., Custers & Aarts, 2005)

– Those whose attitudes are generated implicitly (versus explicitly) should have an easier time enacting corresponding judgments and behaviors (e.g., Fazio, 1989; Fazio et al., 1992; Fazio & Powell, 1997)

– Evaluative readiness for a goal as an implicit tool for the successful pursuit of that goal

Question 2 - How functional?

• Research suggests that evaluative readiness may be both an implicit signature and tool of successful regulation

• Those who are successful at a goal should be the most likely to show this kind of implicit readiness

Overview of research

• Question 1 - How conscious?

– Goal was nonconsciously activated

– Goal-relevant stimuli presented subliminally

• Question 2 - How functional?

– Goal was difficult (variability of skill)

– Skill measured objectively and subjectively


• Experiment 1

–Academic achievement goal

–Implicit attitudes toward:• Grades

• Library

• Books

Experiment 1

• Nonconscious goal priming– Scrambled sentence task

• Academic goal (e.g., smart, graduation, achievement)

• Control 1 - No goal (e.g., new, outside, moving)

• Control 2 - Social goal (e.g., friends, laughing, social)

• Subliminal attitude measure

• Demographic questions – GPA used as criterion of skill in the academic domain

Experiment 1

• Subliminal evaluative priming paradigm– Olson & Fazio, 2002

– Primes presented subliminally• Goal-relevant: grades, books, library • Control: chair, window, sky, etc.

– Targets presented supraliminally• Positive adjectives (e.g., wonderful)• Negative adjectives (e.g., awful)

Example trial

56 ms *

28 ms - “Tony unconscious”

42 ms

98 ms

Response

&!%$}@#

grades

&!%$}@#

wonderful

time

Experiment 1

• Design

– Goal priming • Academic achievement• Control 1 (No goal)• Control 2 (Social goal)

– Skill • High • Low

Experiment 1

• Hypothesis

– Those in academic goal condition should implicitly evaluate the academic primes more positively

• Only those who are highly skilled

Experiment 1

• Results

– Implicit positivity scores• Difference score that reflects how much academic

primes facilitated RTs to positive vs. negative targets

• Difference score for control primes used as covariate

– Significant interaction between goal and skill• F(2,79) = 4.08, p = .02

Implicit positivity toward goal-relevant primes by goal priming and skill

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(Ferguson, under review)

Experiment 1

• Conclusions

– Evaluative readiness emerged only for highly skilled

– Even though goal was nonconsciously activated and stimuli were subliminal (or, very minimally processed)

Experiment 1

• Remaining questions

– High and low skill people may differ in their beliefs about the utility of the goal-relevant primes• Next experiment looks at implicit attitudes toward

words related to the goal itself, rather than means

– Does skill predict evaluative readiness even while holding (conscious) motivation constant?• Motivation is included as a covariate

Experiment 1


– How do we know that a goal is being activated?• Aarts, Gollwitzer, & Hassin (2004)

• Bargh et al. (2001)

• Chartrand & Bargh (1996)

• Kawada, Gollwitzer, & Bargh (2004)

– Still, how do we know that these effects result from the activation of a goal?

Experiment 1


– Goals have been distinguished from other constructs by their specific effects on behavior

• Semantic priming effects decrease rapidly – (e.g., Higgins, Bargh, & Lombardi, 1985; Srull & Wyer, 1979)

• Goal strength either stays the same or increases over the same short period of time

– (e.g., Atkinson & Birch, 1970; Bargh et al., 2001)


• Experiment 2

– Academic achievement goal

– Implicit attitudes toward achievement

Experiment 2

• Nonconscious goal priming– Word search puzzle

• Achievement (e.g., master, succeed, strive, achieve)

• Control (e.g., plant, carpet, ranch, shampoo)

• Subliminal attitude measure– Immediately or after a delay (map task)

• Demographic questions about skill and motivation

Experiment 2

• Evaluative priming paradigm

– Subliminally presented primes

• Goal-relevant: achievement

• Control: chair, window, sky, etc.

– Targets

• Positive and negative adjectives

Experiment 2

• Questionnaire– Demographic questions

– Skill• How difficult do you find it to get high grades in your courses

here at Cornell, on average?

• How difficult do you find it to finish your course work here at Cornell, on average?

– Motivation• How important is it to you to do well and achieve

academically?

Experiment 2

• Design

– Goal priming (achievement, control)

– Timing of attitude measure (immediate, delay)

– Skill (high, low)

Experiment 2

• Hypothesis

– Those in the goal condition should show more positive implicit attitudes toward the goal prime

• Only for high skill

• The effect should not weaken over time

Experiment 2

• Results

– Implicit positivity scores

– Significant interaction between goal, timing, and skill, F(1,83) = 5.23, p = .025

• Low skill, interaction of goal x timing, ns, p>.25

• High skill, F(1,45) = 4.11, p < .05

Implicit positivity for high skill as a function of goal priming and timing

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Control GoalPriming Condition

Facilitation (ms)

ImmediateDelay


Experiment 2• Conclusions

– Evaluative readiness emerged for highly skilled, even though goal was nonconsciously activated and stimuli were subliminal

– Effect was stronger after delay, indicating a motivational construct

– But! No effects on conscious motivation • (e.g., Aarts, Gollwitzer, & Hassin, 2004)

Experiment 3


– Goals have been activated implicitly, but because the goal primes were consciously perceived, may leave some room for conscious rumination• Subliminal goal priming task

– Measured implicit attitudes toward means for the goal, but tested whether skill was correlated with beliefs about means


• Experiment 3

– Goal to be thin

– Implicit attitudes toward:• Salad• Gym• Vegetables

Experiment 3

• Nonconscious goal priming– Subliminal priming of the goal to be thin

• Thin goal (thin, small)• Control (zxcvbnm)

• Subliminal attitude measure– Immediately– After 6-minute delay (map task)

• Demographic questions; motivation, skill

Experiment 3

• Subliminal evaluative priming paradigm

– Primes

• Goal-relevant: gym, salad, vegetables

• Control: chair, window, sky, etc.

– Targets

• Positive and negative adjectives

Experiment 3

• Demographic questionnaire

– Skill• “How difficult do you find it to become or stay thin?”• “How difficult do you find it to avoid eating fattening

foods?”

– Motivation • “How important is it to you to avoid eating fattening

foods?”

Experiment 3

• Demographic questionnaire

– A portion of participants reported beliefs about the relevance of the primes for the goal

• Rate the relevance of the items to the goal to be thin

• Rate the helpfulness of these items for the pursuit of the goal to be thin

Experiment 3

• Design

– Goal priming (thin, control)

– Timing of attitude measure (immediate, delay)

– Skill (high, low)

Experiment 3

• Hypothesis

– Those in goal condition should show more positive implicit attitudes toward goal primes

– Only those who are skilled

– Effect should not weaken over time

Experiment 3

• Results

– Interaction between goal priming and skill level (held in both immediate and delay condition) = .58, p = .05

• In control condition, ns, all ps > .25

• In goal condition– Skill, = .29, p = .045– Skill stayed significant (p = .07) even when

motivation was added to analysis (motivation, ns)

Implicit positivity as a function of goal and skill

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Experiment 3

• Results

– No correlations between skill and ratings of relevance or helpfulness for the 3 goal primes, and no differences across prime conditions

Experiment 3• Conclusions

– Highly skilled participants showed evaluative readiness, when goal was nonconsciously activated and stimuli were subliminal

– Effect held over time

– No effects on conscious motivation

Conclusions

• Question 1 - How conscious?– Not much.

– Evaluative readiness emerges even when there is little opportunity for conscious rumination, about either the goal or the attitude objects

• Question 2 - How functional?– Evaluative readiness seems to be an implicit

signature and/or tool of effective self-regulators

Ongoing research

• Evaluative readiness– Manipulate evaluative readiness and then test success– Examine development of evaluative readiness as a

function of skill and motivation– Examine possible dissociation between implicit and

explicit attitudes

• Nonconscious goal pursuit – Changes in implicit attitudes can be taken as evidence

of nonconscious goal activation – When is nonconscious goal pursuit mediated by

implicit � attitudes (see Custers & Aarts, 2007)?

Thank you

Matthew BussardTom ArmstrongKate GolenskyMin-Ha Park

Miranda StruckSasha Li

Megan FrankSarah Aslam

Shirley CuevaDmitry Dvoskin

on implicit evaluations melissa j. ferguson cornell university

Documents

game slide

press slide

implicit attitudes attitudes

implicit positivity

nonconsciously slide

influence implicit attitudes

functional implicit

phenomenon slide