The Role of Trait Inferences in Evaluative Conditioning

Tal Moran, Sean Hughes, Pieter van Dessel, Jan de Houwer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) effect is a change in evaluative responding to a neutral stimulus (CS) due to its pairing with a valenced stimulus (US). Traditionally, EC effects are viewed as fundamentally different from persuasion effects. Inspired by a propositional perspective to EC, four studies (N = 1,284) tested if, like persuasion effects, EC effects can also be driven by trait inferences. Experiments 1-2 found that promoting trait inferences (by pairing people with trait words rather than nouns) increased EC effects. Experiments 3-4 found that undermining trait inferences (by questioning the validity of those inferences) decreased EC effects. In all experiments, however, EC effects were still significant when trait inferences were invalid. Taken together, our findings (a) suggest that trait inferences can play an important role in EC effects, (b) constrain theoretical models of EC, and (c) have important implications for applied EC interventions.

Original languageEnglish
Article number31738
JournalCollabra: Psychology
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 25 Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Automatic evaluation
  • Evaluative conditioning
  • Propositional models
  • Trait inference

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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