Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, and the Theory and

The concepts of attitude and evaluation have been central to social psychology for nearly a century. This should not be surprising, as the ubiquitous act of assign-ing positive or negative valence is crucial for survival, be it in guiding immediate behavior toward or away from an object, or in anticipation of future rewards or punish-ments. Through accumulated experience, these evalua-tive judgments can be consolidated in memory to form a summary attitude, which can be recalled to guide future behavior. These summary attitudes, though imperfect at times, allow for the construction of quick evaluative judgments when similar stimuli or situations occur. For example, once we learn that someone is untrustworthy, we can avoid that person in future situations without needing to re-evaluate all of our previous interaction