Concept associations as the basis of social priming

Salomon, Erika C

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/92802 Copy

Description

Title

Concept associations as the basis of social priming

Author(s)

Salomon, Erika C

Issue Date

2016-07-15

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Kraus, Michael W.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Cimpian, Andrei

Committee Member(s)

• Fraley, R. Chris
• Preston, Jesse L.
• Roberts, Brent

Department of Study

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Social cognition
• Priming
• Concept associations

Abstract

Social priming has been a fundamental methodological practice in experimental social psychology for decades; however recent failures to replicate priming studies have cast some doubt on the robustness of subtle primes’ influence on social behavior. The present research attempts to resolve this uncertainty by advancing the perspective that the robustness of social priming effects can be predicted a priori from the strength of the concept association under study. Across eight studies, reported without publication bias, I found that the observed strength of concept pair associations (Studies 1 and P1) from the priming literature predicted my capacity to observe (Studies 2, P2, and P5) or not (Studies 2, P3, P4, and P5) social priming effects. An attempt to strengthen a concept association and test the causal role of association strength (Study 3) resulted in no difference in concept associations and no priming. Overall, I find that social priming effects occur only for the most strongly related concept pairs and that easily measured explicit associations are useful for predicting these effects. I conclude that estimating the strength of underlying concept associations is critical for planning, interpreting, and reporting priming studies.

Graduation Semester

2016-08

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92802

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2016 Erika Salomon

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