The Automaticity of Affective Reactions: Stimulus Valence, Arousal, and Lateral Spatial Attention

Abstract

Social psychologists have sought to understand the automaticity of affective reactions in terms of consequences for attention, evaluation, and judgment. Typically, affect is manipulated by stimulus valence, with little consideration of the role of stimulus arousal in such priming effects. The present two studies, involving 54 right–handed participants, sought to extend the case for automatic affect and sought to do so by highlighting the unique priming effects of stimulus arousal on the differential activation of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Using affective slides as stimuli, the present two studies found that high levels of stimulus arousal, irrespective of stimulus valence, shifted attention leftward within visual space. This phenomenon extends research on automatic priming effects to lateral spatial attention and suggests an implicit spatial probe task that may be useful in future studies focused on the arousing effects of social stimuli.