On the automatic activation of attitudes.
Abstract
We hypothesized that attitudes characterized by a strong association between the attitude object and an evaluation of that object are capable of being activated from memory automatically upon mere presentation of the attitude object. We used a priming procedure to examine the extent to which the mere presentation of an attitude object would facilitate the latency with which subjects could indicate whether a subsequently presented target adjective had a positive or a negative connotation. Across three experiments, facilitation was observed on trials involving evaluatively congruent primes (attitude objects) and targets, provided that the attitude object possessed a strong evaluative association. In Experiments 1 and 2, preexperimentally strong and weak associations were identified via a measurement procedure. In Experiment 3, the strength of the object-evaluation association was manipulated. The results indicated that attitudes can be automatically activated and that the strength of the object-evaluation association determines the likelihood of such automatic activation. The implications of these findings for a variety of issues regarding attitudes--including their functional value, stability, effects on later behavior, and measurement--are discussed.
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Like physiological measures, the validity of most indirect measures has been established via stimuli of known valence from self-report studies, creating the same inferential paradox described for physiological measures.
“like physiological measures, the validity of most indirect measures has been established via stimuli of known va- lence, and this knowledge came from studies using self-report measures (e.g., Fazio et al. 1986, Greenwald et al. 1998, Payne et al. 2005).This issue creates the same inferential paradox described for physiological measures.”
From Unawareness of Attitudes, Their Environmental Causes, and Their Behavioral Effects (2025) · cites this paper as Fazio et al. 1986
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- Authors
- Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., & Kardes, F. R.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 1986
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 229-238
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2024168339
- Cited by
- 2,584
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 43 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 68 · 2022: 83 · 2021: 84 · 2020: 82 · 2019: 105 · 2018: 92 · 2017: 92 · 2016: 109 · 2015: 104 · 2014: 116 · 2013: 114 · 2012: 134
- FWCI
- 63.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH 38832)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- attitude strength, priming, attitude measurement, attitude stability, attitude functions
- MeSH terms
- Arousal, Attitude, Consciousness, Humans, Memory, Mental Recall, Set, Psychology, Word Association Tests
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