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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affect heuristic | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affect_heuristic | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:57:18.202032+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Smiling === Research has been done on how smiling can cause affective responses and thus influence our opinions of others. An experiment by LaFrance and Hecht (1995) investigated whether a smiling target would elicit more leniency than those that do not. Participants judged a case of potential academic misconduct and were asked to rate a list of subjects. Materials included photos of a female target either showing a neutral expression, felt smile, false smile, or miserable smile. Researchers found that the student pictured as smiling received less punishment than did the student who did not smile despite the fact that the smiling student was not seen as less guilty. They did not find a significant difference between the different smiles. Smiling students were also rated as more trustworthy, honest, genuine, good, obedient, sincere, and admirable compared to the student that did not smile. To the previous studies evidence, there is further evidence on the effect of smiling on a person’s perception. They contain it in the experiment by Delevati and Cesar (1994). Brazilian undergraduates perceived a slide of a male and female person. Smiling faces were portrayed and non-smiling faces were portrayed. The participants used 12 different adjectives to judge the portraits. Results showed those persons showing a smile received more favorable perceptions than those who did not. Generally speaking, a smiling person can produce warmer feelings in the perceiver than the non-smiling person.
=== Memory load === Researchers have studied how one's memory load increases one's chances of using the affect heuristic. In a study by Shiv and Fedorikhin (1999), participants were asked to either memorize a two-digit number (low cognitive demand) or a seven-digit number (high cognitive demand). Participants were then asked to enter another room where they would report their number. On the way there, they were asked for their preference for two snacks: chocolate cake (more favorable affect, less favorable cognition) or fruit salad (less favorable affect, more favorable cognition). Researchers predicted that participants given the seven-digits to remember (high cognitive load) would reduce their deliberation process due to having to remember a large amount of information. This would increase the chances of these participants choosing the cake over the fruit salad due to it being the more affectively favorable option. This hypothesis proved true with participants choosing the chocolate cake 63% of the time when given a high cognitive load and only 41% when given a low cognitive load. In the same study they also tested the impulsiveness of the participants in moderating the effects of processing-resources of choice and at the time they were asked for their preference for the two snacks high cognitive demand chose the chocolate cake 84.2%. This provides evidence that people's decisions can be influenced by affect heuristic in a relatively spontaneous manner from the stimulus, with little involvement of higher-order cognitive demand.
=== Lasting effects === Another common situation involving affect heuristic is where a strong, emotional first impression can inform a decision, even if subsequent evidence weight cognitively against the original decision made. In a study by Sherman, Kim and Zajonc (1998), they investigated how long the induced effects of an affective response could last. Participants were asked to study Chinese characters and their English meanings. Half of the meanings were positive (e.g. beauty) and the other half negative (e.g. disease). Participants were then tested on these meanings, which was followed by a task in which they were given pairs of characters and asked to choose which character they preferred. Researchers found that participants preferred the character with a positive meaning. In the same experiment, participants were given a new task where the characters were presented with a neutral meaning (e.g. linen) and participants were told that these were the true meanings of the character. The testing procedure was the same and despite exposing participants with the new meanings, their preferences in characters remained the same. Characters that were paired with positive meanings continued to be preferred.
== Disadvantages == While heuristics can be helpful in many situations, it can also lead to biases which can result in poor decision-making habits. Like other heuristics, the affect heuristic can provide efficient and adaptive responses, but relying on affect can also cause decisions to be misleading.
=== Smoking === Studies have looked at how the affect influences smoking behavior. Smokers tend to act experientially in the sense that they give little conscious thought to the risks before they start. It is usually as a result of affective responses in the moment that occur when seeing others partake in the behavior. Epstein (1995) found that there has been quite a bit of manipulation of consumers when it comes to packaging and marketing products. This is especially the case with tobacco companies. Research has shown that cigarette advertisements were designed to increase the positive affect associated with smoking and decrease the perceptions of risk. Therefore, seeing this advertisement could lead people astray to start smoking because of its induced appeal. In a study by Slovic et al. (2005), he released a survey to smokers in which he asked “If you had it to do all over again, would you start smoking?” and more than 85% of adult smokers and about 80% of young smokers (between the ages of 14 and 22) answered “No.” He found that most smokers, especially those that start at a younger age, do not take the time and think about how their future selves will perceive the risks associated with smoking. Essentially, smokers give little conscious thought to smoking before they start and it is usually after they have started smoking and have become addicted that they learn new information about health risk.
== References ==
== Further reading == Slovic, Paul; Melissa Finucane; Ellen Peters; Donald G. MacGregor (2014). "The Affect Heuristic" (PDF). European Journal of Operational Research. 55 (6): 527–32. doi:10.1111/sjop.12166. PMID 25243906. Thomas Gilovich; Dale Griffin; Daniel Kahneman, eds. (2002). Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79679-8. Shefrin, Hersh (2002). Behavioral Corporate Finance: Decisions that create value. McGraw-Hill. pp. 2, 10, 164, 40–42, 60–61, 69. ISBN 978-0-07-284865-6.