Eva Walther

Guilty by Mere Association: Evaluative Conditioning and the Spreading Attitude Effect

Five experiments investigated the phenomenon that attitude formation is not confined to the co-occurrence of an attitudinal object with an evaluated experience. The pairing of a target with a (dis)liked person not only affects the evaluation of the previously neutral person but spreads to other individuals who are (pre)associated with the target (spreading attitude effect). Experiments 1 and 2 provided evidence for the spreading attitude effect in appetitive as well as aversive evaluative conditioning. Experiment 3 showed that the spreading attitude effect is a robust phenomenon resistant to extinction. Experiment 4 demonstrated that attitude spread can be transferred to 2nd-order conditioning. Finally, Experiment 5 supports the notion that the spreading attitude effect is not dependent on cognitive resources. Implications for social as well as applied psychology are discussed.

The pros and cons of temporally near and distant action.

The present research demonstrated that in considering an action, considerations against (con) the action tend to be subordinate to considerations in favor of (pro) the action in that cons are considered only if the level of pros is sufficient, whereas pros are considered independent of the level of cons (Studies 1A and IB). The authors therefore concluded that pros constitute a higher construal level than cons and predict, on the basis of temporal construal processes (Y. Trope & N. Liberman. 2003). that pros would be more salient in making decisions for the more distant future, whereas the reverse should hold for cons. As predicted, participants generated more pros and fewer cons toward new exam procedures (Study 2), public policies (Study 3), and personal and interpersonal behaviors (Studies 4-6) that were expected to take place in the more distant future. This research also examined the limiting conditions and the evaluative consequences of these shifts.

Evaluative conditioning in social psychology: Facts and speculations

The aim of the present paper is to examine the contribution of evaluative conditioning (EC) to attitude formation theory in social psychology. This aim is pursued on two fronts. First, evaluative conditioning is analysed for its relevance to social psychological research. We show that conditioned attitudes can be acquired through simple co‐occurrences of a neutral and a valenced stimulus. Moreover, we argue that conditioned attitudes are not confined to direct contact with a valenced stimulus, but can be formed and dynamically reformed indirectly, through association chains. Second, social research is examined in an effort to identify evaluative learning mechanisms. We suggest that several important phenomena in social psychology (e.g., ingroup favouritism, prejudice, name letter effect) are at least partly due to simple mechanisms of evaluative learning. The implications for attitude formation theory and for applied settings are discussed.

Evaluative conditioning and the awareness issue : Assessing contingency awareness with the four- picture recognition test

An experiment is described that tested the moderating influence of contingency awareness on evaluative conditioning. After participants were conditioned within the picture-picture paradigm, contingency awareness was assessed by means of a recognition test (i.e., the 4-picture recognition test). Results indicate an inverse relationship between the conditioned affective reaction and contingency awareness: Only participants classified as unaware in the recognition test showed significant effects of evaluative learning. A closer inspection indicates that aware individuals stored not only the valence but also the nominal stimulus in mind.

Changing likes and dislikes through the back door: The US-revaluation effect

US-revaluation refers to the observation that subsequent changes in the valence of an unconditioned stimulus (US) after pairing it with a neutral, conditioned stimulus (CS) also changes the valence of the associated CS. Experiment 1 found evidence for the US-revaluation effect using an unobtrusive measure of evaluation. However, US-revaluation effects were more pronounced for positive-to-negative compared to negative-to-positive revaluations. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for self-reported evaluations, further showing that US-revaluation effects are stable over time and independent of explicit memory for the revaluating information. Using a modified paradigm, Experiment 3 ruled out method-related explanations for these findings and showed that changes in CS evaluations are correlated with parallel changes in US evaluations. These findings encourage the view of evaluative conditioning as an instance of stimulus–stimulus (S–S) rather than stimulus-response (S–R) learning. Implications for basic and applied research are discussed.

The TAR Effect: When the Ones Who Dislike Become the Ones Who Are Disliked

Four studies tested whether a sources evaluations of other individuals can recursively transfer to the source, such that people who like others acquire a positive valence, whereas people who dislike others acquire a negative valence (Transfer of Attitudes Recursively; TAR). Experiment 1 provides first evidence for TAR effects, showing recursive transfers of evaluations regardless of whether participants did or did not have prior knowledge about the (dis)liking source. Experiment 2 shows that previously but not subsequently acquired knowledge about targets that were (dis)liked by a source overrode TAR effects in a manner consistent with cognitive balance. Finally, Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrate that TAR effects are mediated by higher order propositional inferences (in contrast to lower order associative processes), in that TAR effects on implicit attitude measures were fully mediated by TAR effects on explicit attitude measures. Commonalities and differences between the TAR effect and previously established phenomena are discussed.

The auto-verification of social hypotheses: Stereotyping and the power of sample size.

In the literature on social hypothesis testing, the co-occurrence of 2 principles is often held responsible for hypothesis confirmation. The first is positive testing (e.g., looking for covert rather than overt aggression when testing the stereotype that female aggression is covert), and the second is a cooperative social environment that will often acquiesce and provide positive answers (i.e., positive examples for covert female aggression). However, it is argued that the co-occurrence of 1-sided questions and confirming answers does not logically verify a hypothesis. A theoretical framework is presented that explains why a constant ratio of confirming to disconfirming evidence has more impact when based on a large than on a small sample of observations. In 2 experiments, a constant affirmation rate led to auto-verification of the hypothesis that was represented by the larger sample. The enhanced significance of large samples is shown to be independent of stereotypical expectancies and unconfounded with diagnosticity.

Constructive Biases in Social Judgment: Experiments on the Self-Verification of Question Contents

Merely thinking about a proposition can increase its subjective truth, even when it is initially denied. Propositions may trigger inferences that depend not on evidence for truth but only on the semantic match with relevant knowledge. In a series of experiments, participants were presented with questions implying positive or negative judgments of discussants in a videotaped talk show. Subsequent ratings were biased toward the question contents, even when the judges themselves initially denied the questions. However, this constructive bias is subject to epistemic constraints. Judgments were biased only when knowledge about the targets role (active agent vs. passive recipient role) was matched by the semantic-linguistic implications of propositions (including action verbs vs. state verbs).

I like her, because I like myself: self-evaluation as a source of interpersonal attitudes.

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that self-evaluation can serve as a source of interpersonal attitudes. In the first study, self-evaluation was manipulated by means of false feedback. A subsequent learning phase demonstrated that the co-occurrence of the self with another individual influenced the evaluation of this previously neutral target. Whereas evaluative self-target similarity increased under conditions of negative self-evaluation, an opposite effect emerged in the positive self-evaluation group. A second study replicated these findings and showed that the difference between positive and negative self-evaluation conditions disappeared when a load manipulation was applied. The implications of self-evaluation for attitude formation processes are discussed.

The Role of Evaluative Conditioning in Attitude Formation

In this article, we address how attitudes are acquired. We present evaluative conditioning (EC) as an explanation for attitude formation and attitude change. EC refers to changes in liking due to pairings of affectively meaningful and neutral stimuli. We discuss four different theoretical accounts of EC and outline current issues and avenues for future research.