10.1177/0146167204271309 ARTICLEPERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETINWinkielman et al. / AFFECTIVE PRIMING Unconscious Affective Reactions to Masked Happy Versus Angry Faces Influence Consumption Behavior and Judgments of Value

The authors explored three properties of basic, unconsciously triggered affective reactions: They can influence consequential behavior, they work without eliciting conscious feelings, and they interact with motivation. The authors investigated these proper-ties by testing the influence of subliminally presented happy ver-sus angry faces on pouring and consumption of beverage (Study 1), perception of beverage value (Study 2), and reports of con-scious feelings (both studies). Consistent with incentive motiva-tion theory, the impact of affective primes on beverage value and consumption was strongest for thirsty participants. Subliminal smiles caused thirsty participants to pour and consume more beverage (Study 1) and increased their willingness to pay and their wanting more beverage (Study 2). Subliminal frowns had the opposite effect. No feeling changes were observed, even in thirsty participants. The results suggest that basic affective reac-tions can be unconscious and interact with incentive motiva-tion to influence assessment of value and behavior toward val-enced objects