Don’t pay attention to what you see! Negative commands and attention bias

Polczyk, Romuald

doi:10.2478/ppb-2013-0008

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(16 reference statements)

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“…This means that a negation sign preceding a given word does not inhibit its affective valence. A series of studies [ 61 ] on the effects of negative injunctions on directing the attention of recipients has shown that negative directives (commands, suggestions, requests) trigger a paradoxical or counter-effective effect; after receiving a request not to pay attention to object X, participants automatically focused their attention on that object (to a similar degree as participants who were asked directly to pay attention to the given object). In some research [ 62 ], negating stereotypes enhanced the activation of stereotypes and negative evaluations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

There was not, they did not: May negation cause the negated ideas to be remembered as existing?

Polczyk

2017

PLoS ONE

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In this article we demonstrate that negation of ideas can have paradoxical effects, possibly leading the listener to believe that the negated ideas actually existed. In Experiment 1, participants listened to a description of a house, in which some objects were mentioned, some were negated, and some were not mentioned at all. When questioned about the existence of these objects a week later, the participants gave more false positives for items that were negated in the original material than for items that were not mentioned at all, an effect we call negation related false memories (NRFM). The NRFM effect was replicated again in Experiment 2 with a sample of five and six year-old children. Experiment 3 confirmed NRFM in the case of negated actions. The results are discussed in terms of retention hypothesis, as well as the theory that negation can activate a representation of an entity and behaviour. It is also indicated that future research is needed to ensure that it is indeed negation which caused false alarms, not merely mentioning an object.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

There was not, they did not: May negation cause the negated ideas to be remembered as existing?

Polczyk

2017

PLoS ONE

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“…In the classic demonstration, subjects were more likely to think about a white bear after a 5‐min period with instructions not to think about a white bear than if they had not received these instructions (Wegner et al, 1987). Similarly, subjects who read a comic book excerpt had better memory for information related to a specific character when they were instructed to pay attention to the character or when they were instructed not to pay attention to the character compared to a control condition with no instructions regarding the character (Maciuszek, 2013). These studies demonstrate that, under certain circumstances, negation can increase the processing of negated information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correcting the unknown: Negated corrections may increase belief in misinformation

Autry

Duarte

2021

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Corrections are not always effective at reducing belief in misinformation. Negated corrections, which state a piece of information is not true, may only be effective at inhibiting information an observer has already encountered. We compared the effectiveness of negated corrections and replacements while manipulating initial exposure to a target concept. Subjects read one (Experiment 1) or six (Experiment 2) passages presenting a target concept (e.g., blue car) or not, followed by a negated correction (e.g., not blue), replacement (e.g., red), or no correction, then answered open-ended questions which were scored for mentions of the target concept. When subjects were exposed to the target concept, negated corrections reduced mentions of the misinformation relative to no correction; however, when not exposed to the concept, negated corrections increased mentions relative to no correction. These results demonstrate that negated corrections can increase belief in misinformation when observers have not been exposed to the misinformation.

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“…We had presumed delayed responses to be the result of an increased focus on words related to purification, but our findings call this into question. It has been reported that increased attention paid to objects results in longer RTs to them, as well as in better recall of them in subsequent memory tests (Maciuszek, 2013). However, the results of Study 3 suggest that thinking about one's own immoral behavior led participants to remember fewer words associated with body cleansing (in comparison to the control condition).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…We presumed that, in situations of morality threats, people doing the LDT will pay more attention to words related to cleansing. Due to the fact that intentionally focusing attention on detected stimuli leads to slower RTs (Maciuszek, 2007(Maciuszek, , 2013, we predicted that, when primed with an immoral action, we will see a delay in RTs to phrases associated with purifying in the LDT. In this way, we tested whether thinking about one's own moral transgressions results in slower RTs to words connected with body cleansing while thinking about the moral transgressions of someone else results in slower RTs to stimuli related to purifying the external world.…”

Section: The Influence Of the Metaphor "Morality Is Purity" On Moral mentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaphorical Association Between Physical and Moral Purity in the Context of One’s Own Transgressions and Immoral Behavior of Others

Sekulak

Polczyk

2017

Psychology of Language and Communication

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The Macbeth effect is a metaphorical association between physical and moral cleanliness -transgression of one's morality leads to increased desire to clean oneself (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006). Earlier studies examined psychological associations between bodily and moral purity according to controlled processes, such as rating product desirability. The influence of the Macbeth effect on more automatic processes (stimuli processing speed) was explored in three studies. We examined whether thinking about one's moral transgression (Studies 1 and 3) or others' immoral behavior (Study 2) contributed to slower reaction times (RTs) to stimuli related to physical purification. It seems that automatic processes may also be affected by the metaphor "morality is purity": It is manifested in slower RTs to stimuli associated with bodily cleansing when recalling one's own past transgressions (Study 3) and in slower responses to words connected with purification of the external world while recalling immoral behaviors of others (Study 2).

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Don’t pay attention to what you see! Negative commands and attention bias

Abstract: The paper presents research into the effects of the use of negations in directives (orders, suggestions, requests

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

There was not, they did not: May negation cause the negated ideas to be remembered as existing?

There was not, they did not: May negation cause the negated ideas to be remembered as existing?

Correcting the unknown: Negated corrections may increase belief in misinformation

Metaphorical Association Between Physical and Moral Purity in the Context of One’s Own Transgressions and Immoral Behavior of Others

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