Unconscious Influences on Behavior

1
Unconscious Influences on Behavior
2
Major Point

• We are not always consciously aware of why we do
  what we do

3
Facial Feedback

• arrangement of facial muscles influences a
  persons emotional state and judgments
• Zajonc et al. (1989)
• subjects read stories that either did or did not
  have many words with u sound
• rated stories with u sound as less pleasant and
  less well-liked

4
Subliminal Perception

• there have been a number of widely circulated but
  fraudulent claims of subliminal perception

5
Subliminal Advertising

• late 1950s
• movie theater in Fort Lee, NJ
• advertising executive arranged to have Eat
  Popcorn and Drink Coke shown for 1/3 of a
  millisecond every 5 seconds during every film for
  6 weeks
• claimed that coke sales went up 18 popcorn
  sales went up 58
• executive later admitted that he had faked data
  to save his then-failing ad agency

6
Subliminal Advertising

• Key (1973)
• published Subliminal Seduction
• argued that advertisers were routinely using
  sexually suggestive subliminal messages to get
  consumers to buy products
• example hidden image of a nude woman
  superimposed on the ice cubes in a glass of scotch

7
Back Masking

• Hutchins--early 1980s, minister in Hot Springs,
  AR
• claimed that Satanic messages were being inserted
  into recordings of popular music
• audible if records were played backwards
• if played forwards, back masked messages
  supposedly entered unconscious, causing person to
  do immoral things

8
The Evidence

• no well-conducted studies have ever found any
  behavioral effects of back-masked or hidden
  messages

9
A Caveat

• people do see or hear what they interpret as
  hidden messages when presented with any
  relatively complex stimulus
• I saw Satan is heard by some listeners when
  Lewis Carolls Jabberwocky is played backward,
  even though no back-masked message has been
  inserted
• probably reflects confirmation bias

10
Question

• If subliminal advertising and back masking dont
  work, are there other forms subliminal perception?

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Answer

• people can have emotional responses to stimuli
  they are not aware of having seen/heard
• people often know more about a stimulus than they
  believe

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Emotional Responses

• Kunst-Wilson Zajonc (1980)
• used tachistoscope to show subjects polygons for
  1 millisecond (subliminal duration)
• showed subjects pairs of polygons--1 they had
  previously seen and 1 new polygon (nonsubliminal
  duration)
• asked subjects
• which one have you seen before?
• which one do you like better?

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• Kunst-Wilson Zajonc (1980)
• question 1 subjects picked previously seen
  polygon 48 of time
• question 2 subjects picked previously seen
  polygon 60 of time
• subjects liked the previously seen polygon better
• subliminal mere exposure effect

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Emotional Responses (continued)

• Lazarus McCleary (1951)
• conditioned subjects to have an emotional
  response to nonsense syllables (VUS) by paring
  syllables with electric shock
• used tachistoscope to show subjects emotionally
  conditioned syllables and neutral syllables (at
  subliminal durations)
• found that subjects had higher GSRs to
  emotionally conditioned syllables (even when they
  couldnt accurately identify syllables)

15
What You Think You Know

• Blackwell (1952)
• presented subjects with dim and very brief light
  in 1 of 4 quadrants on screen
• asked subjects to identify location of light
• if initial response was wrong, asked subject to
  guess again
• probability of subsequent correct response was
  better than chance
• subjects knew more than they thought they did

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Summary Thus Far

• it is possible to make accurate judgments and be
  influenced by stimuli that are below the
  subjective threshold for perception, but above
  the objective threshold for perception
• objective threshold level of presentation at
  which subject has obtained no information about
  stimulus
• subjective threshold level of presentation at
  which subject believes he has obtained no
  information about an event

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Cognitive Dissonance

• People prefer that their beliefs and behavior are
  consistent
• When behavior conflicts with a belief, people
  find this to be unpleasant (experience
  dissonance)
• People want to eliminate dissonance
• In many cases, people will change a belief to
  make it consistent with behavior

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Festinger Carlsmith (1959)

• Method
• subjects lined wooden spools up on tray and
  turned pegs on board
• subjects rated interest level of task (-5 to 5)
• 1/3 subjects were asked to create positive
  expectancy for next subject, were paid 1, and
  re-rated task
• 1/3 of subjects were asked to create positive
  expectancy for next subject, were paid 20,
  re-rated task

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• Results
• control subjects -.45
• 20 subjects -.05
• 1 subjects 1.35
• Interpretation
• 1 subjects experienced dissonance
• behavior (telling next subject study was
  interesting) was inconsistent with belief (study
  was dull)
• lacked sufficient justification for behavior
  (only paid 1)
• had to revise belief to make it consistent with
  behavior

20
Zimabardo et al. (1965)

• Method
• army reservists asked to rate survival foods
• rated fried grasshopper negatively
• 1/2 soldiers are asked to eat grasshopper by
  warm, friendly, likeable officer
• 1/2 soldiers are asked to eat grasshopper by
  cold, distant, unfriendly officer
• then asked to re-rate grasshopper

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• Result
• ratings of subjects in unfriendly officer group
  were much higher than friendly officer group
• Interpretation
• subjects in unfriendly officer group had
  experienced dissonance
• behavior (eating grasshopper) was inconsistent
  with belief (grasshopper is gross) and they
  lacked sufficient justification for doing it
• had to change belief to bring it in line with
  behavior

22
The End of the World As We Know It

• Festinger et al. (1956)
• infiltrated group of people led by Marion Keech
• Mrs. Keech received messages from aliens that
  world would end on Dec. 21
• group of believers would be picked up by flying
  saucer at midnight on Dec. 20
• many followers quit their jobs and sold all their
  possessions

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• midnight came nothing happened
• at 445 a.m., Mrs. Keech had a new vision
• world had been spared because of the impressive
  faith of her group
• follow-up indicated there was virtually no change
  in the acceptance of her teachings
• only 2 of 11 abandoned group
• degree to which group attempted to attract other
  followers substantially increased after Dec. 21

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Justification of Investment

• aka justification of effort
• The more effort, time, money etc. that you have
  put into obtaining something, the better you will
  like it
• probably explains effectiveness of Greek hazing
  and military boot camp in turning new recruits
  into loyal members

25
Necessary Conditions

• People have to perceive that they had some degree
  of choice in their behavior
• Belief has to have some real world consequences

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Other examples of unconscious influences on
behavior

• Memory
• explicit memory knowledge that can be
  intentionally retrieved
• implicit memories of events that influence us,
  but that we cannot intentionally recall
• can detect implicit memory using stem completion
  task
• Patients with Korsakoffs Syndrome
• show deficits in explicit memory, but not
  implicit memory

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Priming

• Marcel (1983)
• Method
• presented subjects with 3-word sequence
• example tree-palm-hand
• dependent variable was lexical decision time for
  hand
• Results
• if palm was presented supraliminally, it
  increased the lexical decision time for hand
• if palm was presented subliminally, it
  decreased the lexical decision time for hand

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Priming (continued)

• Groeger (1988)
• Method
• first showed subjects a word
• depending on condition, word was either at
  subliminal duration (subject could obtain no
  conscious info. about word) or supraliminal (just
  long enough for subjects to obtain partial info.
  about word)
• then showed subjects a list that didnt actually
  contain the first word
• asked subjects which word on list was the one
  they were first shown

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Groeger (continued)

• Results
• if first word was shown supraliminally, subjects
  chose a word that was similar in structure
• if first word was shown subliminally, subjects
  chose a word that was similar in meaning
• Found similar results for auditory stimuli
• if first word was presented supraliminally,
  subjects chose a word that was similar in sound
• if first word was presented subliminally,
  subjects chose a word that was similar in meaning

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Unconscious Influences on Social Behavior

• Lewicki (1986)
• Method
• during a preexperimental interview, subject was
  either insulted by the interviewer or treated in
  a neutral manner
• subjects were then asked to go into another room
  and select whichever of two experimenter was free
  to administer the rest of the experiment
• because both experimenters were actually free,
  subjects had to make a choice about which
  experimenter to choose
• one of the two experimenters physically resembled
  the interviewer who had insulted the subject

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Lewicki (continued)

• Results
• 80 of subjects who had previously been insulted
  chose the experimenter who did not look like the
  interviewer
• 43 of subjects who had not been insulted choose
  the experimenter who did not look like the
  interviewer
• in a subsequent questionnaire, almost all
  subjects indicated that their choice was
  completely random

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Conclusions

• Many pop psych claims about subliminal perception
  have not been supported by research
• Research has shown that we are not always
  consciously aware of the reasons why we do what
  we do

33
Research-supported examples of unconscious
information processing

• People can have emotional responses to stimuli
  that they are not aware of having been exposed to
• conditioned response to nonsense syllables
• People can know more about a stimulus than they
  think they do
• dots of light in visual quadrant

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Summary (continued)

• People will often change their beliefs to make
  them consistent with behavior, especially if they
  lack sufficient justification for their behavior
• cognitive dissonance
• People can be influenced by stimuli they cant
  remember having been exposed to
• implicit memory

35
Summary (continued)

• A stimulus can have different effects depending
  on whether it is presented subliminally or
  supraliminally
• lexical decision time
• choice of word that is similar in meaning vs.
  structure
• Previous experience can have an unconscious
  influence on social behavior
• subjects who were insulted by the interviewer