title: From primed concepts to action: A meta-analysis of the behavioral effects of incidentally presented words.
abstract: A meta-analysis assessed the behavioral impact of and psychological processes associated with presenting words connected to an action or a goal representation. The average and distribution of 352 effect sizes (analyzed using fixed-effects and random-effects models) was obtained from 133 studies (84 reports) in which word primes were incidentally presented to participants, with a nonopposite control group, before measuring a behavioral dependent variable. Findings revealed a small behavioral priming effect (dFE = 0.332, dRE = 0.352), which was robust across methodological procedures and only minimally biased by the publication of positive (vs. negative) results. Theory testing analyses indicated that more valued behavior or goal concepts (e.g., associated with important outcomes or values) were associated with stronger priming effects than were less valued behaviors. Furthermore, there was some evidence of persistence of goal effects over time. These results support the notion that goal activation contributes over and above perception-behavior in explaining priming effects. In summary, theorizing about the role of value and satisfaction in goal activation pointed to stronger effects of a behavior or goal concept on overt action. There was no evidence that expectancy (ease of achieving the goal) moderated priming effects. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Marketing Department, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Evan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weingarten
authors.affiliation: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Qijia
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Maxwell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McAdams
authors.affiliation: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Facebook.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hepler
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign.
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Albarracín
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D001519:Behavior; D006801:Humans; D060865:Repetition Priming; D014936:Word Association Tests