Unconscious manipulation of free choice in humans.
Previous research has shown that subliminally presented stimuli accelerate or delay responses afforded by supraliminally presented stimuli. Our experiments extend these findings by showing that unconscious stimuli even affect free choices between responses. Thus, actions that are phenomenally experienced as freely chosen are influenced without the actor becoming aware of the manipulation. However, the unconscious influence is limited to a response bias, as participants chose the primed response only in up to 60% of the trials. LRP data in free choice trials indicate that the prime was not ineffective in trials in which participants chose the non-primed response as then it delayed performance of the incongruently primed response.
Kiesel
Andrea
A
Department of Psychology, Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Institut für Psychologie III, 97070 Würzburg, Germany. kiesel@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de
Wagener
Annika
A
Kunde
Wilfried
W
Hoffmann
Joachim
J
Fallgatter
Andreas J
AJ
Stöcker
Christian
C
D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008257:Machiavellianism; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D011930:Reaction Time; D014474:Unconsciousness; D014796:Visual Perception