Immersion versus transcendence: How pictures and words impact evaluative associations assessed by the Implicit Association Test

Research indicates that words activate high-level construal (processing that highlights central, goal-relevant features of events) whereas pictures activate low-level construal (processing that highlights idiosyncratic, peripheral features). We examine how these differences between words and pictures impact evaluative associations. Research has demonstrated that high-level relative to low-level construal promotes evaluative associations that enhance self-control, promoting associations that link smaller prox-imal rewards (temptations) with negativity and larger-distal rewards (goals) with positivity. Examining dieting as a self-control con-flict, we find that words promote sensitivity to goal-relevant dimension of stimuli (i.e., health) while pictures promote sensitivity to temptation-relevant dimension of stimuli (i.e., taste) among those concerned with dieting in a single-category implicit association test (SC-IAT). An additional study finds that changing the presentation format of the IAT from pictures to words increases the tendency to associate temptations (i.e., desserts) with negativity among those concerned with dieting. Theoretical, methodolo-gical, and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Keywords picture versus words, verbal versus visual processing, construal level, evaluative associations The adage ‘‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ ’ implies that pictures are richer, more effective, and convey more informa-tion than words do. We accept that pictures and words function differently in communication, but challenge the idea that pic-tures are necessarily better or more effective than words. Previ-ous research has found that whereas pictures immerse people into the specifics of events, words promote transcendence from them (e.g., Amit, Algom, & Trope, 2009a). In this article, we examine the implications of such differences in processing on people’s evaluative associations—the ease with which people associate objects with positivity and negativity—in the context of a self-control conflict and discuss some of the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications