Unconscious Influences Research Articles

Priming Intelligent Behavior: An Elusive Phenomenon

Can behavior be unconsciously primed via the activation of attitudes, stereotypes, or other concepts? A number of studies have suggested that such priming effects can occur, and a prominent illustration is the claim that individuals' accuracy in answering general knowledge questions can be influenced by activating intelligence-related concepts such as professor or soccer hooligan. In 9 experiments with 475 participants we employed the procedures used in these studies, as well as a number of variants of those procedures, in an attempt to obtain this intelligence priming effect. None of the experiments obtained the effect, although financial incentives did boost performance. A Bayesian analysis reveals considerable evidential support for the null hypothesis. The results conform to the pattern typically obtained in word priming experiments in which priming is very narrow in its generalization and unconscious (subliminal) influences, if they occur at all, are extremely short-lived. We encourage others to explore the circumstances in which this phenomenon might be obtained.

Confronting a “Big Huge Gaping Wound”: Emotion and Anxiety in a Cultural Sensitivity Course for Psychiatry Residents

In his seminal volume From anxiety to method in the behavioral sciences, George Devereux suggests that any therapeutic or scientific engagement with another human being inevitably will be shaped by one's own expectations, assumptions, and reactions. If left unacknowledged, such unspoken and unconscious influences have the capacity to torpedo the interaction; if subjected to critical reflection, however, they can yield insights of great interpretive value and practical significance. Taking these reflections on counter-transference as point of departure, this article explores how a range of unacknowledged assumptions can torpedo good faith efforts to engender "cultural sensitivity" in a required course for American psychiatry residents. The course examined in this paper has been taught for seven successive years by a pair of attending psychiatrists at a longstanding New England residency training program. Despite the instructors' good intentions and ongoing experimentation with content and format, the course has failed repeatedly to meet either residents' expectations or, as the instructors bravely acknowledged, their own. The paper draws upon a year-long ethnographic study, conducted in the late 2000s during the most recent iteration of the course, which involved observation of course sessions, a series of interviews with course instructors, and pre- and post-course interviews with the majority of participating residents. By examining the dynamics of the course from the perspectives of both clinician-instructors and resident-students, the paper illuminates how classroom-based engagement with the clinical implications of culture and difference can run awry when the emotional potency of these issues is not adequately taken into account.

A Couple Who Lost Joy

This paper was born out of a conversation between the co-authors as they made a rich-text study of the presentation and progress in treatment of a couple whose complaint was that they had lost joy. Pierre Cachia was the therapist and Jill Scharff, his writing partner. Writing about the consultation and early phases of analytic couple therapy, the therapist introduces the couple's presentation, current difficulties, and history. He then recounts a session in detail from the sixteenth month of treatment. As the session unfolds, the co-authors interrupt the clinical narrative to join in a free-form, open discussion of the emerging material. They share an attitude of curiosity about unconscious dynamics, transgenerational influences, and countertransference. Their respective voices merge as they develop an understanding of the underlying dynamics and the power of therapeutic action. Without reference to standard texts, they simply focus on the clinical narrative and their discussion of it to provide an experience-near illustration of analytic sensibility in couple therapy.

The multiple pathways by which self-control predicts behavior

The multiple pathways by which self-control predicts behavior

Psichosocialinių veiksnių įtakos darbuotojų lojalumui tyrimas dirbančiųjų Lietuvoje pavyzdžiu

Employee loyalty represents one of the key issues in human resource management. While there are many reasons for employees to remain loyal to the company employing them, two general categories of sources of loyalty stand out. First, employee propensity to stay in an organization is often related satisfaction of their material needs (Ralytė, 2010, Žaptorius, 2007). On the other hand, importance of non-material needs is also often emphasized (e.g. Bakanauskienė, Ubartas, 2009; Lakacauskaitė, 2012). In times of economic crisis, when organizations are not always capable of meeting material aspirations of the employees, the question about other sources of loyalty comes to the forefront. Among such other sources are quality of interpersonal relationships, organizational identity and perceived prestige of an organization. Addressing this practical challenge requires careful examination of theoretical aspects of the issue. The variables of employee loyalty, organizational identity and interpersonal relationship quality have been studied quite extensively. For example, the issue of employee loyalty has been examined by D. Savareikienė, L. Daugirdas (2009), V. Legkauskas (2000) provided in depth-analysis of identity, J. Vveinhardt (2009) conducted revealing research on importance of interpersonal relationships between employees. Also, J. Almonaitienė (2007) studied relationship between organizational identity and employee loyalty. However, there is a lack of research aimed at empirical determination of relationship between various “soft” factors affecting employee loyalty. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine the importance of interpersonal relationship quality, perceived prestige of an organization, and strength of organizational identity for employee loyalty. Subjects in the study were 139 employees working for various organizations in Lithuania. Organizational identity was measured using Organizational Identification Scale (Mael, Tetrick, 1992), interpersonal relationship quality was assessed by means of the High-Quality Connections Questionnaire developed by J. E. Dutton, E. D. Heaphy (2003) and perceived organizational prestige was measured by the questionnaire of F. A. Mael and B. E. Ashforth (1992). In order to assess employee loyalty, a scale was developed for the present study on the basis of various larger questionnaires (Victor, Cullen 1988, cit. from Maesschalck, 2005; Konowsky, Organ, 1996; Lin et al., 2010; Homburg, Stock, 2000, cit. from Matzler, Renzl, 2006; Jun, Cai, Shin, 2006). Results of the study revealed statistically significant relationships between all variables studied. Better interpersonal relationship quality was linked to stronger organizational identification and more perceived organizational prestige. The study also revealed that the “soft” factors – interpersonal relationship quality, organizational identification and perceived organizational prestige – explained 88.7 % of employee loyalty. These finding points out to a very important fact in human resource management – while employees may often cite the “hard” factor of wages as the key source of their loyalty, the “soft” factors examined in the present study in fact exert stronger, albeit unconscious influence. It should be noted, that the cross-sectional nature of the present study does not allow for a definite conclusion about cause and effect relationships between the variables studied. In order to prove existence of such relationship, longitudinal studies conducted in various types of organizations are necessary.

Linking perception and cognition

Linking perception and cognition

The stigma of obesity and discrimination in performance appraisal: a theoretical model

We propose a theoretical model to study the effect of obesity stigma on performance appraisal. The model draws from the appraisal, obesity, stigmatization, and prejudice literatures to examine three sets of factors: individual factors in the appraiser(s) and the obese appraisee; factors in performance appraisal; and contextual factors. According to the model, these factors make it easier or harder for obesity stigma to affect the performance appraisal of obese employees, potentially biasing the process and resulting in discrimination. While examining the interplay of forces that facilitate or inhibit the expression of obesity stigma in the affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses of appraisers, we introduce the concept of ‘aversive weightism’. This concept enhances understanding of the tensions between the ethos of objectivity in performance appraisal and the deeply rooted, often unconscious influences of societal prejudice and stigma against obesity. We conclude with implications for research and practice.

Implicit Attitudes in Consumer Purchase Intent

Consumer attitudes toward products may be consciously-accessible (explicit) and unconscious (implicit). It is challenging to evaluate the effects of product design on consumer attitudes, because design may exert unconscious influences on consumer attitudes. This study tested the effectiveness of two prominent measures of implicit attitudes in discriminating products of differing design qualities. The measures used were the Evaluative Movement Assessment (EMA) and priming effects of washer images in the Lexical Decision Task (LDT). Explicit liking was also assessed. Responses were assessed to four washing machines chosen to span a range of quality and style options available on the market. Findings showed that the EMA but not the LDT measure discriminated the products, as well as the responses of buyers and non-buyers. Furthermore, the EMA and explicit ratings appear to tap into different aspects of consumer attitudes. Implications for product design and evaluation are discussed.

Collection Development and the Psychology of Bias

The library literature addressing the role of bias in collection development emphasizes a philosophical approach. It is based on the notion that bias can be controlled by the conscious act of believing in certain values and adhering to a code of ethics. It largely ignores the psychological research on bias, which suggests that bias is a more complex and subtle phenomenon. Bias is not always conscious and cannot always be consciously controlled. Countering bias requires an understanding of both its conscious and unconscious influences on selectors and the selection process. This article examines the psychological research that has been conducted on bias and shows how it applies to selectors and the selection process in collection development.

The pervasive nature of unconscious social information processing in executive control.

Humans not only have impressive executive abilities, but we are also fundamentally social creatures. In the cognitive neuroscience literature, it has long been assumed that executive control mechanisms, which play a critical role in guiding goal-directed behavior, operate on consciously processed information. Although more recent evidence suggests that unconsciously processed information can also influence executive control, most of this literature has focused on visual masked priming paradigms. However, the social psychological literature has demonstrated that unconscious influences are pervasive, and social information can unintentionally influence a wide variety of behaviors, including some that are likely to require executive abilities. For example, social information can unconsciously influence attention processes, such that simply instructing participants to describe a previous situation in which they had power over someone or someone else had power over them has been shown to unconsciously influence their attentional focus abilities, a key aspect of executive control. In the current review, we consider behavioral and neural findings from a variety of paradigms, including priming of goals and social hierarchical roles, as well as interpersonal interactions, in order to highlight the pervasive nature of social influences on executive control. These findings suggest that social information can play a critical role in executive control, and that this influence often occurs in an unconscious fashion. We conclude by suggesting further avenues of research for investigation of the interplay between social factors and executive control.

Food images engage subliminal motivation to seek food.

Human eating behaviour is motivated and shaped by a complex interaction of internal drives such as hunger, external influences such as environmental cues and the sensory properties of food itself. Thus, as is demonstrated by the example of sensory-specific satiety (SSS), hunger may be reduced but particular foods (for example, desserts) retain their attraction and their ability to prompt consumption. In considering consumption, and overconsumption, it is therefore important to understand the interaction between internal and external drives to eat. Using grip force as a measure of motivation, we examined this interaction using an SSS manipulation. Critically, we sought to determine whether food stimuli would exert their influence even when they were subliminally presented (and thus not accessible to consciousness), and whether this unconscious influence would be flexibly updated in response to changes in food reward value with satiety. Demonstrating that the SSS effect remains when external stimuli are not consciously perceived, our data highlight the importance of even the most subtle, fleeting and even subliminal external events in shaping our motivation towards food.

Paradoxical Effects of Alcohol Information on Alcohol Outcome Expectancies

Cognitive associations with alcohol predict both current and future use in youth and young adults. Much cognitive and social cognitive research suggests that exposure to information may have unconscious influences on thinking and behavior. The present study assessed the impact of information statements on the accessibility of alcohol outcome expectancies. The 2 studies reported here investigated the effects of exposure to alcohol statements typical of informational approaches to prevention on the accessibility of alcohol outcome expectancies. High school and university students were presented with information statements about the effects of alcohol and other commercial products. The alcohol statements were taken from expectancy questionnaires. Some of these statements were presented as facts and others as myths. The retention of detailed information about these statements was manipulated by (i) divided attention versus focused attention or (ii) immediate versus delayed testing. Accessibility of personal alcohol outcome expectancies was subsequently measured using an open-ended question about the expected effects of alcohol. Participants reported more alcohol outcomes seen during the information task as personal expectations about the effects of alcohol use than similar unseen items. Paradoxically, myth statements were also more likely to be reported as expectancies than unseen items in all conditions. Additionally, myth statements were generated less often than fact statements only under the condition of immediate testing with strong content processing instructions. These observations are consistent with findings from cognitive research where familiarity in the absence of explicit memory can have an unconscious influence on performance. In particular, the exposure to these items in an informational format increases accessibility of the seen items even when the participants were told that they were myths. The findings have implications for the development of effective prevention materials.

Unconscious influences in sentencing decisions: a research review of psychological sources of disparity

Drawing on theoretical insights from basic psychological research, influences sourced in unanticipated or extra-legal aspects of criminal cases that can influence sentencing decisions are reviewed. Findings from empirical studies of observed disparities in sentencing decisions are summarized, including archival data, observational studies, field research and experimental investigations of simulated sentencing decisions. A criterion for inclusion was that the factor had to exert an influence outside the conscious awareness of the judge. The paper examines the effects on sentencing of some traditional extra-legal factors, such as judge and offender gender, as well as less traditional elements, such as the judge's attitudes and sentencing philosophy, the physical appearance of the offender, unforeseeable consequences of the crime, and reactions to acts of terrorism. Four sources of potential bias are distinguished: (a) features associated with the judge; (b) features associated with the offender, (c) unanticipated or remote consequences of the offence, and (d) contextual information at the time of the sentencing decision that heightens awareness of mortality. The effectiveness of sentencing reforms to reduce disparities arising from unconscious factors is discussed. The purpose of this review is to advance understanding of the psychology of sentencing and increase judicial and public awareness of unconscious biases and disparities in sentencing determinations.

Subliminal Emotional Priming and Decision Making in a Simulated Hiring Situation

The present study examines the unconscious influence of emotional information on decision making in a simulated hiring situation. We used a subliminal masked priming paradigm with varying faces as primes, which were presented for a duration of 50 ms and had two levels of emotion: positive emotion (happiness) and negative emotion (anger). These primes were followed by emotionally neutral target faces. Primes were congruent (same faces) or incongruent (different faces). Prime Emotion (positive vs. negative) was crossed with Prime Repetition (repeat vs. unrelated) in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Each participant was tested in all four of the experimental conditions, each of which had 5 different trials. The participants were asked to indicate as rapidly as possible whether they were “favorable” or “unfavorable” toward the selection of the candidate (target face). Two dependent measures were analyzed: number of target faces chosen (i.e., number of “favorable” responses to target faces) and reaction time (RT). Results revealed a strong effect of emotional priming. Participants tended to choose more target faces preceded by positive prime faces than by negative prime faces. Moreover, they reacted faster when presented with target faces preceded by negative primes. Despite its exploratory nature, this study provides further evidence for the role of emotional processing in modulating decision processes and extends the experimental manipulation of subliminal emotion to the case of the masked repetition priming technique.

Judging a Book by its Cover: The Unconscious Influence of Pupil Size on Consumer Choice

Past research suggests that men perceive women with large pupils as especially attractive. We employed an innovative methodology to examine whether this effect influences consumer decision-making. A popular psychology book was published with two slightly different front covers. Both covers contained the same photograph of a woman; however, the woman's pupils on one cover were digitally enlarged. Readers indicated whether they were male or female, and whether they possessed the cover with small or large pupils. A significantly greater percentage of men than women had chosen the cover with the large pupils. None of the participants who attempted to guess the nature of the experiment was correct, suggesting that the influence exerted by pupil size was unconscious. These findings provide further support for the notion that people's judgments are unconsciously swayed by pupil size, and demonstrate that this effect operates in a real world setting.

The Scaffolded Mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world.

It has long been a staple of psychological theory that early life experiences significantly shape the adult's understanding of and reactions to the social world. Here we consider how early concept development along with evolved motives operating early in life can come to exert a passive, unconscious influence on the human adult's higher-order goal pursuits, judgments, and actions. In particular, we focus on concepts and goal structures specialized for interacting with the physical environment (e.g., distance cues, temperature, cleanliness, and self-protection), which emerge early and automatically as a natural part of human development and evolution. It is proposed that via the process of scaffolding, these early sensorimotor experiences serve as the foundation for the later development of more abstract concepts and goals. Experiments using priming methodologies reveal the extent to which these early concepts serve as the analogical basis for more abstract psychological concepts, such that we come easily and naturally to speak of close relationships, warm personalities, moral purity, and psychological pain. Taken together, this research demonstrates the extent to which such foundational concepts are capable of influencing people's information processing, affective judgments, and goal pursuit, oftentimes outside of their intention or awareness.

Turning the process-dissociation procedure inside-out: A new technique for understanding the relation between conscious and unconscious influences

While there is now general agreement that memory gives rise to both conscious and unconscious influences, there remains disagreement concerning the process architecture underlying these distinct influences. Do they arise from independent underlying systems (e.g., Jacoby, 1991) or from systems that are interactive (e.g., Joordens & Merikle, 1993)? In the current paper we present a novel “inside-out” technique that can be used with the process-dissociation paradigm to arrive at more concrete conclusions concerning this central question and demonstrate this technique via a meta-analysis of currently published findings. Our results suggest that the data presented in these studies vary in ways most consistent with the assumption that conscious and unconscious influences behave independently.

Hidden Assumptions and the Placebo Effect

Whether, or how far, acupuncture effects can be explained as due to the placebo response is clearly an important issue, but there is an underlying philosophical assumption implicit in much of the debate, which is often ignored. Much of the argument is cast in terms which suggest that there is an immaterial mind hovering above the brain and giving rise to spurious effects. This model derives from Cartesian dualism which would probably be rejected by nearly all those involved, but it is characteristic of "folk psychology" and seems to have an unconscious influence on much of the terminology that is used. The majority of philosophers today reject dualism and this is also the dominant trend in science. Placebo effects, on this view, must be brain effects. It is important for modern acupuncture practitioners to keep this in mind when reading research on the placebo question.

Development on the Periphery: Democratic Transitions in Southern and Eastern Europe by Howard J. Wiarda , Dale R. Herspring , Esther M. Skelley (review)

REVIEWS 171 in the Czech KS6M could perhaps be interpreted as a symbolic gesture by the hardliners to distance themselves from the party's neo-Communist wing without much practical relevance. External inspiration, as it seems, is not very often translated into policy adoption. Both KSClM's Grebenicek and SDE's Weiss, for example, cite Italian post-Communists as a source of inspiration for their parties. The relevance of such inspiration is nevertheless questionable given the totally different trajectories of theCzech and Slovak CSPs. After reading the book one may wonder how fruitful it is to study pro grammatic and policy transferbetween political parties, ifeven in the critical case of the CSPs, that desperately tried to legitimate themselves after the regime change, only a rather weak and often even unconscious influence is detected. The book essentially shows how CSPs utilized knowledge of pro grammes and policies of other parties, and especially of transnational party groups (the Socialist International and the PES) without actually adopting them.However, as with the topic of Europeanization of political parties, it is the indirect and unacknowledged impact of external actors that seems to be more important and perhaps even more interesting than search for direct causal links.This iswhy Learning from the West? is a solid volume that should be of interest to students of party politics. Department of Political Science MarekRybar ComeniusUniversity, Bratislava Wiarda, Howard J. Developmenton the Periphery: DemocraticTransitions inSouthern andEastern Europe.With the assistance ofDale R. Herspring and Esther M. Skelley. Rowman & Littiefield Publishers, Boulder, CO, New York, Toronto, London and Oxford, 2006. ix + 269 pp. Notes. Suggested readings. Index. ?19.99 (paperback). Howard Wiarda's is certainly not the firstbook on democratic transitions inwhat he and the two of his co-authors (Dale Herspring and Esther Skelley) call the (European) periphery. Much has been written on both Southern and Eastern Europe in transition from authoritarianism (or 'transition to democracy', as normativists in the field of democratization studies prefer to call it).The relative novelty offeredby thisbook is in itscomparative approach ? although this too has already been seen before, not least in Geoffrey Pridham's edited volume on 'Transition to Democracy', published eleven years ago. The author(s) compare transitions from authoritarianism in South ern Europe (in the 1970s and 1980s) with that of the post-1989 'Eastern Europe' (whatever the concept means in post-1989 context). They conclude that political changes in both regions are among 'the most exciting and important events of our times' (p. 250), but 'we need to remember that many of these democratic transitions are still incomplete' (p. 250), and that 'three or four generations' might be needed before all of these countries (especially those in the former Eastern Europe) could be called democracies. This (rather pessimistic) conclusion is based on authors' reliance on the factor of 172 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 200g political culture, which they consider to be very important yet cannot be changed overnight. The authors are, in particular, cautious when trying to predict further developments in former Eastern Europe. There are five possible scenarios, they argue in chapter seven (p. 175): a) successful transition to Western-style democracy (withprimary candidates being: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and the three Baltic Republics); b) 'the formal adaptation of democratic procedures but only limited implementation of genuine democracy' (likely to happen in Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus, and theUkraine); c) 'a reversion to full-scale Communism (without stating in which of the East European countries is this likely to happen); d) emergence of a 'new authoritarian regime', different from Communism, but still authoritarian (and authors see 'most of the states thatwere once a part of the Soviet Union but are now loosely organized as theCIS' as candi dates; and e) 'thepossibility for national breakdown, disintegration, civilwar' (in Serbia, Bosnia and Chechnya). The fact that some countries (forexample Croatia, Albania andMacedonia ? three candidates for themembership ofNATO) have not been mentioned here should be seen as a tacit recognition on the side of the authors that not all cases could be accommodated within their classification. Credibility of the arguments presented in thisbook is seriously undermined by interpretation of recent developments in Eastern Europe, as presented in chapter two...

Automatic Mental Associations Predict Future Choices of Undecided Decision-Makers

Common wisdom holds that choice decisions are based on conscious deliberations of the available information about choice options. On the basis of recent insights about unconscious influences on information processing, we tested whether automatic mental associations of undecided individuals bias future choices in a manner such that these choices reflect the evaluations implied by earlier automatic associations. With the use of a computer-based, speeded categorization task to assess automatic mental associations (i.e., associations that are activated unintentionally, difficult to control, and not necessarily endorsed at a conscious level) and self-report measures to assess consciously endorsed beliefs and choice preferences, automatic associations of undecided participants predicted changes in consciously reported beliefs and future choices over a period of 1 week. Conversely, for decided participants, consciously reported beliefs predicted changes in automatic associations and future choices over the same period. These results indicate that decision-makers sometimes have already made up their mind at an unconscious level, even when they consciously indicate that they are still undecided.