Doing without feeling: Unconscious affect controls

human consumptionPiotr Winkielman

Psychology, University of Denver

Kent Berridge

Psychology, University of Michigan

Julie Wilbarger

Psychology, University of Denver

SCP-2002, Austin

TargetIdeograph

Affective Prime(smile,neutral, frown)

10 msSubliminal 2000 ms

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

Subliminal Affective Priming Effect

The low and high road to affective responses

Subliminal facial expressions generate affective responses – Psychophysiological

evidenceDimberg et al, 2000 – Facial EMG

Subliminal Emotion Visible Neutral

30 msec 5 sec

Zygomaticus

Corrugator

Basic affective reactions to consumatory stimuli

do not require subjective experience

Sweet

Bitter

Procedure of Study 1 – Pour and Consume

Subliminal Emotion x 8(16 ms)

Happy, Neutral, Angry

Visible Neutral(400 msec)

Gender Identification Task

Rate Mood + Arousal

Pour + Consume

PRE-EXPERIMENTAL MEASURE – How thirsty are you?

Amount of drink poured and consumed by thirsty participants

as a function of subliminal expression

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

happy neutral angry

millilite

rs

Poured

Consumed

Rating of mood as a function of subliminal expression.

-2-1

01

2

happy neutral angry

Procedure of Study 2 – Sip & Rate• Same priming procedure

• Small, fixed amount to drink –”take a sip”

• Extensive mood measure

Ratings of wanting for more drink among thirsty participants

as a function of subliminal expression.

1-2 sips

half a cup

happy angry

Willingness to pay for a can of the drink among thirsty participants as function of

subliminal expression.

$0.20

$0.30

$0.40

$0.50

$0.60

happy angry

Summary of affective priming studies

• Subliminal affective stimuli can influence actual behavior (including consumption) and judgments (including monetary assessments).

AFFECTIVE REACTIONS CAN HAVE UNCONSCIOUS CAUSES

• Subliminal affective stimuli can work without awareness of affective change.

AFFECTIVE REACTIONS CAN BE UNCONSCIOUS• Affective influence does not require inferences from

conscious experience. AFFECTIVE REACTIONS CHANGE PREFERENCES

DIRECTLY