The impact of automatic evaluation on mood: an awareness-dependent effect

How do affective feelings arise? Most theories consider that affective feelings result from the appraisals of an event, these appraisals being the consequences of automatic evaluations processes that can occur pre-consciously. However, studies testing this hypothesis have provided divergent results. We hypothesised that the discrepancy could be due to the visibility of the affective stimuli. We conducted two studies in which we manipulated this factor. Moreover, to exclude a possible explanation of these effects in terms of semantic priming or of experimental demand, we measured participants' facial expressions with EMG in addition to self-report measures (BMIS). The two studies showed that repeated brief exposure to visible positive stimuli (words, Experiment 1 - pictures, Experiment 2) led to more positive feelings than exposure to negative stimuli. In contrast, when the stimuli were masked, the reversed pattern of results was observed. Results on facial EMG indicate similar effects. Consistent with the automatic evaluation hypothesis, the results suggest that assimilative effects of affective stimuli on affective feelings can be observed after a repeated brief presentation of primes, provided that the stimuli are visible. The contrast effects observed when stimuli were masked appear reliable but remain in need for further theoretical explanation.