A transfer effect of affect: evidence from episodic simulation of moral scenario

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on a scenario-place name matching paradigm, the objective of the study was to explore the transfer of affective value under the episodic simulation of moral or immoral scenarios. Experiment 1 revealed that people’s affective attitude towards neutral places matched with moral events will become more positive after episodic simulation, while those matched with immoral events will become more negative. In Experiment 2, we added a new condition—natural reading—and replicated these findings. Besides, we found the different function between episodic simulation and reading in the transfer of negative affect which may verify that imaginative resistance could be as an explanation for the transfer of negative affect under the simulation. The results from the two experiments indicate that episodic simulation indeed induces the transfer of affective value. Therefore, our findings suggest that episodic simulation induces the transfer of affective value to neutral elements in a real-life environment.