Automaticity of Everyday Life

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Automaticity of Everyday Life
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Lectures 5 6Automaticity of Everyday Life

• Bargh, J.A., Chartrand, T.L. (1999). The
  unbearable automaticity of being. American
  Psychologist, 54, 462-479.
• Dijksterhuis, A., Bargh, J.A. (2001). The
  perception-behavior expressway Automatic effects
  of social perception on social behavior. Advances
  in Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 1-40.
• Lakin, J.L., Jefferis, V.E., Cheng, C.M.,
  Chartrand, T.L. (2003). The chameleon effect as
  social glue Evidence for the evolutionary
  significance of nonconscious mimicry. Journal of
  Nonverbal Behavior, 27, 145-162.
• Lecture 5 Behavioural Priming
• Lecture 6 Nonconscious Mimicry

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Varieties of Automatic Behaviour
Action Priming
Interpersonal Mimicry
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AutomaticityA Framework For Thinking About
Mental Life

• the case of the daydreaming driver!
• components of mental life
• automatic vs. controlled processes (Bargh,
  1989)
• 4 horsemen of automaticity
• awareness
• intention
• efficiency
• control

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The Ecology of Automaticity

• So what exactly is an automatic process?
• Are we aware of the causes of behavior?
• Awareness
• 3 ways in which we may be unaware of a mental
  process

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Awareness

• we may be unaware of the presence of a stimulus
  (e.g., subliminal priming).
• we may be unaware of the way in which a stimulus
  has been interpreted or categorized.
• we may be unaware of factors (e.g., stimulus
  appraisal) that influence our behaviour.
• So what role does awareness play in the
  elicitation of behaviour?

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Intentionality

• the intentionality aspect of automaticity refers
  to how much control we have over our thoughts and
  behaviour. Intentionality has to do with whether
  we are in control of the instigation of a
  process.
• So do intentions give rise to our everyday
  actions and behaviours? Might our behavior be
  purposive, yet unintended?

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Efficiency

• the efficiency component of automaticity refers
  to the extent to which a mental process demands
  attentional resources for its execution. To the
  extent that it does, it may not occur when the
  attentional demands of a situation are high
  (e.g., dual tasking)
• So is everyday behaviour efficient or can it be
  disrupted by concurrent tasks?

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Controllability

• controllability generally refers to the extent to
  which one is aware of the impact of a stimulus
  and whether one is able to counteract (i.e.,
  control) the effect of the stimulus on ones
  behaviour.
• So is everyday action controllable?

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The Lights Are OnBut is There Anybody Home?

• much of everyday life - thinking, feeling, and
  doing - is automatic in that it is driven by
  current features of the environment (i.e.,
  people, objects, behaviors of others, settings,
  roles, norms, etc.) as mediated by automatic
  cognitive processing of those features, without
  any mediation by conscious choice or reflection.
• Bargh (1997, p. 2)

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If-Then Conditionals

• the power of if-then conditionals (Anderson,
  1992 Bargh, 1989)
• if X (i.e., environmental feature), then Y (i.e.,
  action)
• red light - then - brake
• elderly person - then - ?

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The Perception-Behaviour Link

• principle of ideomotor action (James, 1890)
• thinking (consciously) about an action activates
  the tendency to engage in the behaviour (e.g.,
  getting out of bed).

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Common Coding Hypothesis

• representing action tendencies in the mind
• common coding hypothesis (Prinz, 1990)
• ones mental representations (e.g., vanilla ice
  cream) contain not only related semantic
  information (e.g., cold, tasty), but also
  applicable behavioral information (e.g., eat with
  fudge sauce). Thus, when the representation is
  activated, accessible action tendencies guide
  ones behaviour in particular directions.
• So can behavior be elicited automatically?

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Automatic ActionSome Early Evidence
Do aggressive cues make people aggressive?
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Carver et al. (1983)

• shocking the confederate
• in a first study, allegedly unrelated to the
  critical experiment, the concept of hostility
  was primed for some participants. Then, in what
  was purportedly an unrelated experiment,
  participants were told to give shocks to another
  person (confederate) when he or she gave an
  incorrect answer to a question. Those primed
  with hostility-related words gave longer shocks
  to the confederate than did non-
• primed participants
• ouch! but do these effects emerge in other
  domains?

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Automatic Action(Bargh et al., 1996)

• Expt 1 - Priming Trait Constructs
• Phase 1 scrambled sentence task - prime
  rudeness or politeness or neither construct.
• assertive patient
• rude polite
• disturb respectful

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• Phase 2 walk down the hall to take part in an
• unrelated experiment, but the experimenter is
• talking to someone (for a maximum of 10 mins)
• How many participants interrupt the
  conversation?
• Rude prime 67
• Polite prime 16

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Priming the Elderly
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• Expt 2 - Priming Stereotypes
• Phase 1 - scrambled sentence task
• forgetful awkward
• Florida California
• bingo tricky
• (category) (control)

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• Phase 2 - walking down the hall (40 feet)
• time taken to make the journey
• elderly condition 8.26s
• control condition 7.30s
• Thus, elicitation of action associated with the
  elderly. But theres more!!!

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Invisible Faces
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• Expt 3 - Priming Affective Responses
• color-counting task (pre-tested as boring)
• subliminal priming - black or white faces
• masking stimulus (odd/even number of circles)
• 130th trial - error message appears on the
  screen
• the task must be repeated
• participants are videotaped

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• How did participants respond to being told that
  the task must be repeated?
• rated hostility (5-point scale)
• white faces 2.13
• black faces 2.79

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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?Dijksterhuis Van
Knippenberg (1998)
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The Professor and the Secretary
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• Priming Stereotypes (Expt 1)
• Phase 1 thought listing (5 mins)
• professor
• secretary
• control
• Phase 2 42 Trivial Pursuit Questions
• Who painted La Guernica?
• (A) Dali, (B) Miro, (C) Picasso, or (D)
  Velasquez

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• Task Performance
• professor 59.5
• secretary 46.4
• control 49.9

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How Stupid Can You Be?
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• Strength of Priming
• Phase 1 - Thought Listing
• soccer hooligan (2 or 9 mins)
• control (no prime)
• Which country hosted the 1990 World Cup?
• (A) USA, (B) Mexico, (C) Spain, or (D) Italy

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• Task Performance
• soccer hooligan (2 mins) 48.6
• soccer hooligan (9 mins) 43.1
• control (no prime) 49.9
• Thus, strength of the effect is moderated by the
  nature of the priming experience.

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Silence in the LibraryAarts Dijksterhuis
(2003)
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• Priming Silence (Expt 1)
• Phase 1 picture description task
• library (you will visit) library goal
  prime
• railway platform (you will visit) control
  goal prime
• library (you will not visit) no-goal
  library prime
• Phase 2 Lexical Decision Task (accessibility
  of words related to silence)
• library-goal prime 524 ms
• control-goal prime 578 ms
• no-goal library prime 568 ms

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• Producing Silence (Expt 2)
• Phase 1 picture description task
• library (you will visit) library goal
  prime
• railway platform (you will visit) control
  goal prime
• library (you will not visit) no-goal
  library prime
• Phase 2 Pronounce 10 words (record voice
  intensity dB(A))
• library-goal prime 83.16 dB
• control-goal prime 84.48 dB
• no-goal library prime 84.62 dB

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Automatic ActionSome Boundary Conditions
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Automatic Action and Inaction

• lets prime kissing (who do you kiss?)
• architecture of cognition
• resolving conflict (Norman Shallice, 1986)
• regulating automatic action
• leaving the movies
• kissing the boss
• inhibition

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A Few Words From William James

• we have so many ideas that do not result in
  action. But it will be seen that in every such
  case, without exception, that is because other
  ideas present simultaneously rob them of their
  impulsive power.
• James (1890, p. 525)

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Help, I Need SomebodyMacrae and Johnston (1998)
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• Phase 1 - Scrambled Sentence Task
• helpfulness
• no-prime
• Phase 2 - The Clumsy Experimenter
• regular pens
• leaking pens
• did participants offer assistance?

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• Prime
• Helping Control
• regular pens 93.7 68.7
• leaking pens 6.2 12.5

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Expt 2On Resisting Assisting

• Phase 1 - Scrambled Sentence Task
• helpfulness
• no-prime
• Phase 2 - Moving To The Next Experiment
• running on schedule
• 5 mins behind schedule
• did participants offer assistance (regular pens)?

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• Prime
• Helping Control
• on time 100 75
• running late 12.5 12.5

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Summary

• Things Worth Knowing
• What is automaticity?
• Process and consequences of behavioral priming.
• Next Week
• 1. Interpersonal Mimicry