Subjects were then given an anagram task designed to measure goal-striving. Subjects were subliminally primed with either of the two names or a control prime (i.e., a random letter string). Subjects were initially asked to provide the name of a significant other who would most want them to possess an achievement-related goal, and the name of a significant other who would care the least about this. In one experiment, Shah used the names of significant others as primes for an achievement-related goal. For example, people that are closely associated with particular goals can serve as primes for these goals. Goals can be activated by a variety of primes. Thus, in contrast to other forms of priming, in which construct activation decreases over time so priming effects are transient, the effects of goal priming actually increase over time. According to Atkinson and Birch's dynamic theory of action, goal-directed action tendencies increase in strength over time until the goal is acted on. Therefore, activating a goal representation will lead to the activation of its corresponding means, which in turn will result in the greater likelihood of the means being carried out. The representation of a goal consists of the means by which the goal operates or is carried out. In addition to the direct, perception–behavior route, subliminal perception also affects behavior through an indirect route, via goal activation. However, not all subliminal priming effects are assumed to be transient. These effects are also assumed to be transient, lasting minutes at best. In other words, subliminal priming cannot cause people to do what they would not naturally do. In fact, most models of such subliminal effects emphasize that these effects would not occur if they were inappropriate to the situation at hand. However, it is important to note that this type of research involves behavior that is both natural and appropriate to the particular situation involved. Though plausible alternatives to the direct perception–behavior link have been proposed in the last decade, the more fundamental idea that subliminally presented stimuli can affect behavior has not been questioned. Judges (blind to condition) who viewed these tapes indicated that subjects subliminally exposed to Black faces responded in a more hostile manner than subjects exposed to White faces. Subjects’ reactions to this news were recorded with a hidden camera. (Previous research had shown that exposure to Black names or faces activated the concept of hostility, part of the Black stereotype.) Then, after many trials, an error message appeared, and the experimenter informed subjects they would have to start the task again from the beginning. During the task, subjects were subliminally exposed to photographs of either Black or White faces. In one experiment, Bargh and colleagues asked subjects to complete a long, boring task on a computer. Bargh proposed that stimuli, including subliminal stimuli, can influence behavior directly, via a perception-behavior link that bypasses conscious thought. In the past 20 years, social psychologists have repeatedly demonstrated that the same subliminal stimuli that can affect judgments and attitudes can also affect overt behavior. Effects of subliminal stimuli on behavior are also more controversial, as the issue of subliminal advertising and persuasion fall under this heading. Indeed, a lengthy literature in social psychology has demonstrated far less correspondence between, for example, attitudes and behaviors than might be expected. Though evidence of subliminal stimuli affecting judgments and attitudes is intriguing, it does not necessarily follow that such stimuli will also affect individuals’ overt behavior. McCulloch, in Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (Second Edition), 2012 Downstream Effects of Subliminal Perception: Behavior
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