敵意語・友好語の意識的・無意識的処理が他者のパーソナリティ評価に及ぼす効果

抄録

Four experiments were conducted to investigate how the prior processing of trait relevant information influenced upon the impression formation. Twenty university students participated in each experiment. First subjects performed a cognitive task in which they processed hostility (Exp. I, II) or friendliness (Exp. III, IV) related words, consciously (Exp. I, III) or subconsciously (Exp, II, IV). In another ostensibly unrelated task, subjects rated a stimulus person on several trait scales based on an ambiguous behavioral description, regarding to hostility (Exp. I, II) or friendliness (Exp. III, IV). It was shown that the more hostility words subjects processed either consciously or subconsciously, the more extreme and negative ratings they yielded. As for friendliness words, however, such effects were found only when they were subconsciously processed, not when they were consciously processed. It was argued that conscious processing was affected by positiveness or negativeness of trait words, but subconscious processing was not.