SPSP 2022 [Poster]

Abstract

Should I approach or avoid? Relying on past behaviors is often adapted to decide quickly. However, past research focused on valence showing that people are faster to approach positive stimuli and avoid negative ones than the reverse (Chen & Bargh, 1999). A grounded cognition view suggests that approach/avoidance tendencies could emerge from past experiences reactivation. Hence, approach/avoidance experiences should create later tendencies.

In Exp. 1, participants in a first phase approached/avoided novel stimuli from two fictitious groups. In a second phase, participants were primed with these stimuli and had to approach/avoid neutral geometric shapes. We predicted and observed faster responses to approach/avoid shapes when primed with approached/avoided stimuli than the reverse, t(154) = 5.22, p = .025, dz = 0.42.

In Exp. 2, participants approached/avoided in Phase 1 depending on the stimuli color, not their group. We observed a similar effect, t(76) = 2.676, p = .009, dz = 0.30. A replication of this experiment yielded a similar—though smaller—effect, t(380) = 2.02, p = .044, dz = 0.10. Therefore, it seems that past approach/avoidance experiences can create later tendencies.

Yoann Julliard

Post-Doc

My research interests include ‘implicit’ processes, grounded cognition, methods, and data analysis.