Affect misattribution procedure developed to explore the unconscious attitudes and values of individuals. For example, some individuals attempt to understate their predilection towards alcohol-either to themselves or to everyone else. As a consequence, explicit questions, such as "Do you like alcohol", are unlikely to generate accurate responses. The affect misattribution procedure can circumvent these limitations, assessing attitudes implicitly rather than explicitly (for other implicit tests, see name-letter effect).
Participants are instructed to rate whether they perceive various abstract patterns, such as Chinese characters, as pleasant or unpleasant. Prior to the Chinese character, another object appears. Participants are instructed to disregard this object. Despite this instruction, participants are more inclined to perceive the Chinese character as pleasant if they have formed favorable, not unfavorable, attitudes towards this object.
In a study conducted by Payne, Govorun, and Arbuckle (2008), for example, a photograph of either a glass of beer or a glass of water appeared before the various Chinese characters. Furthermore, participants were subsequently granted the opportunity to consume either beer or water. The individuals who preferred the beer were more likely than were the other participants to prefer the Chinese characters that followed a photograph of beer rather than water. This finding vindicates the proposition that individuals prefer patterns that follow the presentation of an object they like.
In another study, conducted by Payne, Cheng, Govorun, Stewart (2005), photographs of George Bush or John Kerry preceded the Chinese letters. Conservative individuals were more likely to prefer letters that followed George Bush rather John Kerry. Taken together, these studies indicate the affect misattribution procedure can be applied to assess attitudes towards both specific objects as well as more global values.
Guinote, Willis, and Martellotta (2010) introduced a cover story to ensure that participants are not suspicious of the pictures that precede the Chinese characters. Specifically, participants were informed the image was a warning signal.
Payne, Govorun, and Arbuckle (2008) also compared the efficacy of this procedure with the utility of related techniques, such as the implicit association test (e.g., Greenwald & Farnham, 2000) and evaluative priming (e.g., Hermans, De Houwer, & Eelen, 2001). To complete the implicit association test, participants receive a series of words. They need to press one button if the term is pleasant, such as "win", and need to another button if the term is unpleasant, such as "vile". In addition, they were instructed to press one button if the term related to alcohol and another button if the term related to water. On some trials, one corresponds to both pleasant and alcohol and another button corresponds to both unpleasant and water. On other trials, one corresponds to both unpleasant and alcohol and another button corresponds to both pleasant and water. If participants associate alcohol with favorable memories and images, performance should be most proficient when the same button corresponds to both pleasant and alcohol (see Payne, Govorun, & Arbuckle, 2008).
To complete the evaluative priming task, participants again needed to categorize a series of words as either pleasant or unpleasant. Prior to each word, a photograph of either beer or water appeared. If participants associate alcohol with favorable memories and images, performance should be most proficient when pleasant terms follow the photographs of beer (see Payne, Govorun, & Arbuckle, 2008).
The correlation between implicit attitudes towards alcohol and various measures of alcohol consumption, such as a measure of alcohol problems (Presley & Meilman, 1989), was higher when the affect misattribution procedure, rather than when the implicit association test or evaluative priming task, was used to appraise these attitudes. The implicit association test might be less effective because performance might represent universal associations between the various stimuli, such as connections between the word "vile" and "alcohol" (e.g., Olson & Fazio, 2004 & see Payne, Govorun, & Arbuckle, 2008, for a discussion of other complications).
Furthermore, Payne, Govorun, and Arbuckle (2008) calculated the reliability of this affect misattribution procedure, generating an estimate of .92. This elevated level of reliability could partly explain the relative utility of this technique compared to other procedures.
A variant of the affect misattribution procedure has also been developed to assess the capacity of individuals to curb negative emotions (see Hofmann, Friese, & Roefs, 2009). In this version, a series of 20 positive or 20 negative pictures were presented briefly, for 75 ms. Next, either 100 ms or 1000 ms after this picture first appeared, a Chinese pictograph appeared for 200 ms. Participants pressed one button if they perceived the pictograph as pleasant and another button if they perceived this pictograph as unpleasant.
Usually, pictographs are perceived as unpleasant if a negative picture was presented 100 ms earlier. However, if negative emotions dissipate rapidly, pictographs might not be perceived as unpleasant if a negative picture was presented 1000 ms earlier. That is, in this period, some individuals might be able to temper the unpleasant emotions these negative pictures evoke. Hence, a difference between the 100 ms and 1000 ms conditions represents the capacity to regulate negative emotions.
Consistent with this premise, affect regulation, as measured by this technique, does correspond to the capacity to override temptations (Hofmann, Friese, & Roefs, 2009). Perhaps, affect regulation reduces the power of impulses on behavior. However, as Hofmann, Friese, and Roefs (2009) concede,whether this measure assesses automatic or controlled affect regulation warrants further research.
Guinote, A., Willis, G. B., & Martellotta, C. (2010). Social power increases implicit prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 299-307.
Greenwald, A. G., & Farnham, S. D. (2000). Using the implicit association test to measure self-esteem and self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 1022-1038.
Hermans, D., De Houwer, J., & Eelen, P. (2001). A time course analysis of the affective priming effect. Cognition & Emotion, 15, 143-165.
Hofmann, W., Friese, M., & Roefs, A. (2009). Three ways to resist temptation: The independent contributions of executive attention, inhibitory control, and affect regulation to the impulse control of eating behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 431-435.
Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2004). Reducing the influence of extra-personal associations on the Implicit Association Test:Personalizing the IAT. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 653-667.
Payne, B. K., Cheng, C. M., Govorun, O., Stewart, B. D. (2005). An Inkblot for attitudes: Affect misattribution as implicit measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 277-293.
Payne, B. K., Govorun, O., & Arbuckle, N. L. (2008). Automatic attitudes and alcohol: Does implicit liking predict drinking? Cognition & Emotion, 22, 238-271.
Presley, C. H., & Meilman, P. W. (1989). The core alcohol and drug survey. Carbondale, IL: The Core Institute, Southern Illinois University.
Last Update: 5/28/2016