The Effects of Priming-Induced Social Approach and Avoidance Goals on the Exploration of Goal-Relevant Stimuli

This article presents an experiment testing the assumption that humans show clear avoidance reactions to possible nonbeneficial social contacts, even without conscious awareness. When the potential costs of interpersonal contacts are salient, people quickly respond to and extensively explore those situational configurations that are relevant to experimentally induced goals. A priming procedure was used to activate potential costs or benefits of interpersonal contacts or neutral aspects. To assess the unconscious activation of social approach or avoidance responses we chose three parameters reflecting participants’ eye movements on different pictures that contained (1) social and (2) nonsocial flight- and avoidance-relevant areas (areas of interest, AOI). Participants primed with the costs (benefits) of social contacts explored nonsocial (social) AOI on the presented pictures significantly longer than participants who were primed with the benefits (costs) of interpersonal contacts.