Affective Priming

Abstract

It is frequently assumed that people spontaneously evaluate any incoming stimulus as pleasant or unpleasant, liked or disliked, good or bad. This evaluative reaction is sometimes held to be automatic and unconditional, and it is claimed to precede cognitive analysis of the stimulus. Evaluative processes of this kind play a central role in current theories of emotion and attitude. One avenue to studying the evaluative response has been the affective priming paradigm. Affective priming investigates whether the evaluation of a first stimulus, the prime, that is to be ignored, affects the processing of subsequent stimuli. The pattern of results and explanations of affective priming effects are reviewed. Explanations of affective priming have traditionally been adapted from explanations of semantic priming. The evidence for automaticity of affective priming is critically assessed. Furthermore, it is argued that the Stroop paradigm may be a more appropriate point of reference than the semantic priming paradigm in accounting for affective priming. The conceptual implications for the role of evaluative processes, the role of consciousness, the nature of judgement and evolutionary theorizing are discussed.