The nonconscious cessation of affiliative motivation: A replication and extension study

Previous research has documented that incidentally processed action-words can produce corresponding behavior and that affective-motivational processes modulate these effects. The present study aimed to (1) replicate earlier work showing that behavioral effects of exposure to social affiliation related action-words (e.g., socialize, party, going-out) cease when these action-words are co-activated with negative stimuli, (2) probe moderation effects of individual differences in the affiliation motive, and (3) examine whether action-word priming effects on behavior rely on specific-word associations rather than the activation of a broad concept. Results of an experimental study (N = 191) showed that exposure-effects of affiliation related words on behavior instrumental in attaining affiliation goals cease when these words were co-activated with negative affect, but this cessation effect was relatively weak and non-significant. Subsequent analyses revealed that the effect was moderated by the affiliation motive: The cessation effect mainly occurred for individuals with a strong affiliation motive. Further, we found no evidence that word priming effects do merely occur via specific-word associations.既往研究已证实，非刻意加工的动作词（action-words）能够引发与之匹配的行为，且情感-动机过程会调节此类效应。本研究旨在完成三项研究目标：（1）重复验证此前的研究结论，即当社会归属相关动作词（social affiliation related action-words，例如"socialize"、"party"、"going-out"）与负性刺激（negative stimuli）共同激活时，这类动作词暴露所引发的行为效应会消失；（2）探究归属动机（affiliation motive）层面的个体差异所产生的调节效应；（3）检验动作词启动（action-word priming）对行为的影响是否依赖于特定词联想（specific-word associations），而非宽泛概念的激活。一项包含N=191名被试的实验研究结果显示，当归属相关词汇与负性情绪（negative affect）共同激活时，这类词汇暴露对助力达成归属目标的行为的影响会消失，但该消失效应相对微弱且不显著。后续分析表明，该效应受到归属动机的调节：消失效应主要出现在归属动机较强的个体中。此外，本研究未发现证据表明词启动效应仅通过特定词联想产生。