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The generality of the automatic attitude activation effect
J A Bargh1, S Chaiken, R Govender
1Department of Psychology, New York University, New York 10003.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|June 1, 1992
Summary
Attitude objects automatically activate associated evaluations, speeding up adjective assessment. This automatic activation effect is robust across various objects and procedures, influencing memory retrieval.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Attitude Formation
Background:
- Previous research (Fazio et al., 1986) showed attitude objects prime similar valence adjectives.
- This priming effect was more pronounced for highly accessible attitudes, indicated by evaluation latency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the generalizability of automatic activation effects across different attitude objects.
- To examine the robustness of these effects across procedural variations.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted to test the automatic activation of evaluations.
- Participants' adjective evaluation latencies were measured following priming with attitude objects.
Main Results:
- The automatic activation effect was found to be pervasive and relatively unconditional.
- Evaluations for both social and nonsocial objects were automatically activated by their mere presence or mention.
Conclusions:
- Automatic activation of stored evaluations is a fundamental cognitive process.
- This process occurs readily upon encountering attitude objects, influencing subsequent judgments.
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