Looks like power: Automatic processing of power cues from briefly presented primes

Power, as a ubiquitous feature of social relations, is frequently used in information processing. Due to its relevance for social interactions, we expected that power is automatically processed. In three experiments, participants categorized stimuli in a response window priming procedure as either powerful or power-neutral. The stimuli were preceded by briefly presented primes that were either never used as targets or were also used as targets. We obtained evidence for an automatic, unintentional processing of power-related pictures even when novel primes were processed. The effect even occurred when primes and targets did not share any perceptual features, such that primes had to be processed semantically. We further revealed correlations between the automatic processing of power cues and right-wing authoritarianism, but not social dominance orientation status, or power ability. In sum, we show a stable priming effect indicating that power is automatically processed from briefly presented primes.