C. Miguel Brendl

Constraining Theories of Embodied Cognition

Influences of perceptual and motor activity on evaluation have led to theories of embodied cognition suggesting that putatively complex judgments can be carried out using only perceptual and motor representations. We present an experiment that revisited a movement-compatibility effect in which people are faster to respond to positive words by pulling a lever than by pushing a lever and are faster to respond to negative words by pushing than by pulling. We demonstrate that the compatibility effect depends on peoples representation of their selves in space rather than on their physical location. These data suggest that accounting for embodied phenomena requires understanding the complex interplay between perceptual and motor representations and peoples representations of their selves in space.

How Do Indirect Measures of Evaluation Work? Evaluating the Inference of Prejudice in the Implicit Association Test

There has been significant interest in indirect measures of attitudes like the Implicit Association Test (IAT), presumably because of the possibility of uncovering implicit prejudices. The authors derived a set of qualitative predictions for peoples performance in the IAT on the basis of random walk models. These were supported in 3 experiments comparing clearly positive or negative categories to nonwords. They also provided evidence that participants shift their response criterion when doing the IAT. Because of these criterion shifts, a response pattern in the IAT can have multiple causes. Thus, it is not possible to infer a single cause (such as prejudice) from IAT results. A surprising additional result was that nonwords were treated as though they were evaluated more negatively than obviously negative items like insects, suggesting that low familiarity items may generate the pattern of data previously interpreted as evidence for implicit prejudice.

Principles of Judging Valence: What Makes Events Positive or Negative?

Publisher Summary The positivity or negativity of events is a major parameter for theorizing in diverse areas of psychology––namely, altruism, conflict, attitudes, impression formation, or conditioning. This chapter explores the impact of positivity or negativity of an event on experience and behavior, such as emotional experience or decision behavior. The positivity or negativity acquired in direct connection with some events might also vary little among or within individuals when the valences of these events are extremely positive or extremely negative. Much less attention has been devoted to factors that initially cause an event to be positive or negative, and investigators often regard it as self-evident that the valence (i.e., the positivity or negativity) of an event is fixed, as if it were an inherent property of the event. Several variables have implications for the experienced intensity of emotions––the valence quantity of an event, the importance of high-identity goals, the likelihood of an event, and the representation of an event as the presence versus the absence of a feature.

The devaluation effect: Activating a need devalues unrelated objects

It is commonly assumed that an object capable of satisfying a need will be perceived as subjectively more valuable as the need for it intensifies. For example, the more active the need to eat, the more valuable food will become. This outcome could be called a valuation effect. In this article, we suggest a second basic influence of needs on evaluations: that activating a focal need (e.g., to eat) makes objects unrelated to that need (e.g., shampoo) less valuable, an outcome we refer to as the devaluation effect. Two existing studies support the existence of a devaluation effect using manipulations of the need to eat and to smoke and measuring attractiveness of consumer products and willingness to purchase raffle tickets. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that consumers are not aware of the devaluation effect and its influence on their preferences.

Stuck in the Middle The Psychophysics of Goal Pursuit

The classic goal-gradient hypothesis posits that motivation to reach a goal increases monotonically with proximity to the desired end state. However, we argue that this is not always the case. In this article, we show that motivation to engage in goal-consistent behavior can be higher when people are either far from or close to the end state and lower when they are about halfway to the end state. We propose a psychophysical explanation for this tendency to get “stuck in the middle.” Building on the assumption that motivation is influenced by the perceived marginal value of progress toward the goal, we show that the shape of the goal gradient varies depending on whether an individual monitors progress in terms of distance from the initial state or from the desired end state. Our psychophysical model of goal pursuit predicts a previously undiscovered nonmonotonic gradient, as well as two monotonic gradients.

The influence of goals on value and choice

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses a role for goals in choice processing and in the perception of value of objects. It defines goals and the activation of goals. An evidence is presented that people habitually associate goals with objects in the world. The chapter describes studies of the influence of goals on how information about options is processed. The role of goals in the evaluation of objects is discussed. The chapter examines how the evaluation of objects can change as a function of the active goal, and how the perceived value of an object is affected by its relationship to the active goal. It is believed that this work makes a positive statement about the processes of decision-making.

Sensitivity to varying gains and losses : the role of self-discrepancies and event framing

Three studies psychophysically measured peoples discrimination among different sizes of monetary net gains or net losses. Participants imagined either gains or nonlosses (i.e., net gains) or losses or nongains (i.e., net losses). Participants discriminated more when the identical event was framed as the presence (gains and losses) versus the absence (nonlosses and nongains) of an outcome, presumably because the latter is harder to represent. Discrimination was enhanced when the motivational features of the imagined event were either both the same as or both different from a persons self-discrepancy. Discrimination was reduced when only one of the motivational features was different. A model of excitations, inhibitions, and disinhibitions between mental representation is suggested to account for these findings.

Wanting, liking, and preference construction.

According to theories on preference construction, multiple preferences result from multiple contexts (e.g., loss vs. gain frames). This implies that people can have different representations of a preference in different contexts. Drawing on Berridges (1999) distinction between unconscious liking and wanting, we hypothesize that people may have multiple representations of a preference toward an object even within a single context. Specifically, we propose that people can have different representations of an objects motivational value, or incentive value, versus its emotional value, or likability, even when the object is placed in the same context. Study 1 establishes a divergence between incentive value and likability of faces using behavioral measures. Studies 2A and 2B, using self-report measures, provide support for our main hypothesis that people are perfectly aware of these distinct representations and are able to access them concurrently at will. We also discuss implications of our findings for the truism that people seek pleasure and for expectancy-value theories.

Preference and the specificity of goals.

In this study, the authors examined (a) the effect of changes in the need to eat on expressed preferences for foods that are appropriate for different times of day and (b) whether that need is directed toward food in general or foods contextually appropriate to the time of day. Previous findings suggest that, when the goal is active relative to when it is inactive, items relevant to satisfying a goal increase in value but items unrelated to that goal decrease in value. The authors observed that, when people needed to eat, they sought foods that are contextually appropriate to the time of day of the study. Hence, the goal they sought to fulfill was narrower than seeking foods in general.

The Offer Framing Effect: Choosing Single versus Bundled Offerings Affects Variety Seeking

Choices of multiple items can be framed as a selection of single offerings (e.g., a choice of two individual candy bars) or of bundled offerings (e.g., a choice of a bundle of two candy bars). Four experiments provide strong evidence that consumers seek more variety when choosing from single than from bundled offerings. The offer framing effect shows that the mechanics of choosing—the ways consumers go about making choices of multiple items—affect variety seeking in a systematic manner. The data also suggest that the effect is largely due to the single offering frame. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.