Controlling the "uncontrollable": Faking effects on the affect misattribution procedure

Area of Science:

• Psychological Science
• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology

Background:

• The affect misattribution procedure (AMP) is a common tool for measuring implicit attitudes.
• Understanding factors that may bias AMP results, such as response strategies, is crucial for accurate implicit measure interpretation.
• Investigating the malleability of AMP effects is important for assessing its validity and reliability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the impact of intentional faking on the affect misattribution procedure (AMP).
• To determine if faking influences overall AMP effects or specific trial types.
• To explore whether strategic advice or prior experience is necessary for successful faking on the AMP.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted to assess the effects of faking on the AMP.
• Participants were instructed or motivated to fake their responses on certain trials.
• AMP effects were analyzed for both fake-prime and non-fake trials, and correlated with self-report measures.

Main Results:

• Faking significantly influenced the overall means and convergent validity of AMP effects.
• Faking selectively affected fake-prime trials, causing significant but reversed AMP effects.
• AMP effects on non-fake trials remained unaffected, demonstrating the specificity of the faking influence.
• Successful faking did not require prior strategic advice or task experience.

Conclusions:

• The affect misattribution procedure (AMP) is susceptible to intentional faking, particularly on fake-prime trials.
• Faking can reverse the direction of AMP effects, challenging the interpretation of results under such conditions.
• The ease with which participants can fake AMP responses, even without explicit instruction, raises concerns about the method's robustness in certain contexts.