SUBTLE PRIMING OF AN IMPORTANT OTHER PERSON WITH A MORE POSITIVE ATTITUDE IMPROVES BEHAVIOR TOWARD MEMBERS OF SOCIAL GROUPS

• Main Author: El-Jarrah, Rand Tahseen
• Other Authors: Charles Lord
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Texas Christian University 2011
• Subjects: College of Science and Engineering
• Online Access: http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-05032011-161041/

Although many previous studies have primed a specific person who is liked or disliked and measured the effects on attitudes and behavior, no previous study has examined the effects on attitudes and behavior of priming a person who is known to have a positive or negative opinion toward the attitude object. In two studies, participants were unobtrusively primed with a significant other (parent in Study 1, best friend in Study 2) who wanted them to treat gay men either more positively or more negatively than their own attitudes would imply. In both studies, controlling for their own attitudes, participants who were primed with a relatively positive other person behaved more positively toward a gay job applicant than toward other applicants, but those primed with a relatively negative other person (and those primed with a stranger in Study 1) did not. The results are discussed in terms of priming-to-behavior links and the possible asymmetry of positive versus negative social contexts.