Cognitive Primes for Attachment Security can Increase Cultural Empathy, but also Interact Negatively with Attachment Anxiety

Abstract

Two studies investigated cognitive primes designed to evoke images of secure adult attachment, compared with primes designed to elicit positive affect unrelated to attachment. The primes were used previously in studies of Israeli undergraduates' perceptions of outgroup members (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2001). In the current studies, European American students completed self-reports of empathy for others who are racially/ethnically different, using the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (Wang et al., 2003). In Study 1, subjects randomly assigned to a prime involving imagery of a hypothetical problematic situation in which loved ones come to their assistance, reported significantly more cultural empathy than those assigned to the positive affect prime. In Study 2, a prime involving imagining a specific real-life person “who loves you and helps you in times of need” was no more effective than the positive affect prime in eliciting ethnocultural empathy. Across both studies, all four primes were equally effective in producing desirable pre-post change in affect. However, among students who received the secure attachment primes, attachment anxiety was significantly associated with a decrease in positive affect. Thus, secure attachment primes may risk an adverse affective response in students with high attachment anxiety.