No description available.

In recent decades the role of context in food consumption behaviour has been the focus of some research. However little is known about whether context influences the way in which we learn to like foods. Most of our food likes and dislikes are acquired through experience. A number of different processes are thought to be involved. One such mechanism is flavour-flavour evaluative conditioning (EC). In flavour-flavour EC a novel flavour (Conditioned Stimuli; CS) is repeatedly paired with a flavour that already evokes an affective response (Unconditioned Stimuli; US). The outcome of these repeated pairings is a shift in liking towards the CS that is in line with the affective value of the US. There is reason to believe that certain contextual factors may influence this type of food preference learning. However few studies have investigated this. In this thesis the impact of several contextual factors on flavour-flavour EC is explored. We also explore the use of approach behaviour as an indirect measure of liking.Chapters 2 and 3 present evidence of the influence of two external contextual factors in flavour-flavour EC. In Chapter 2 the effect of information was investigated. Conditioning in unrestrained eaters was marginally enhanced when conditioning was presented in the context of positive information regarding the CS-US pairings. Results show that information may influence flavour-flavour EC, possibly through assimilation and contrast effects. In Chapter 3 the effect of physical context on flavour-flavour EC was explored. Results showed that conditioning was context specific. Conditioning effects were strongest when participants acquired conditioning and were tested in the same context compared to those who acquired conditioning in one context and moved to a second context for testing. Chapter 4 presents a methodological investigation of the efficacy of using approach behaviours as a way to indirectly measure liking for real drink stimuli. Approach behaviours were shown to differ according to drink valence with quicker approaches exhibited for pleasant drinks compared to aversive drinks. Approach behaviours were then used as an indirect measure of drink liking in Chapter 5. Chapters 5 and 6 explore two factors related to the internal context. Chapter 5 explores the role of cognitive resources in flavour-flavour EC. In two experiments conditioning was shown to be reduced under conditions of cognitive load suggesting a role for cognitive resources in flavour-flavour EC. Chapter 6 presents an exploration of the effect of mood on flavour-flavour EC. There was no effect of mood on conditioning per se, however results showed that sad participants rated CS flavours more positively than happy participants, a finding that is interpreted with reference to mood regulation. The work presented in this thesis provides evidence that many factors related to the context within which learning occurs can influence flavour-flavour EC. Flavour-flavour EC is shown to be context specific, dependent upon cognitive resources and open to influence from information and mood. These findings highlight the importance of context in food behaviour.

L’autoritarisme de droite (Right Wing Authoritarianism ; RWA) est une co-variation du conservatisme social, du traditionalisme et de l’autoritarisme. Une des caractéristiques du RWA est une moindre malléabilité des attitudes dans le temps. Cependant, ce lien entre RWA et rigidité des attitudes a été très majoritairement observé dans le cadre de l’étude des relations inter-groupes. Ces études se concentrent sur le lien entre le RWA et le changement d’attitude envers des groupes réels. Si l’intérêt de ces travaux est indéniable, il n’est pas possible d’y examiner la formation et le changement d’attitude de manière contrôlée. En effet, l’étude des groupes sociaux réels implique des effets de contexte ou des préconceptions sociales dans la formation et le changement d’attitude. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à la compréhension du RWA dans le changement d’attitude au sein d’un cadre standardisé et contrôlé : le conditionnement-contre-conditionnement évaluatif. À travers 11 expériences, nous avons testé si le RWA prédisait un plus faible changement d’attitude envers des stimuli nouveaux et artificiels. Nous avons alors pu observer que le RWA est négativement associé à la sensibilité au contre-conditionnement. Cet effet, présent dans la grande majorité de nos expériences, a été modulé en fonction des caractéristiques du conditionnement-contre-conditionnement. Plus précisément, la quantité d’informations contre-attitudinales disponibles, la présence d’instructions ou encore la diminution des ressources attentionnelles modulent le lien entre RWA et changement d’attitude. Dans l’ensemble, ces résultats corroborent l’hypothèse d’un plus faible changement d’attitude lié au RWA pour des stimuli nouveaux et artificiels. / Right wing authoritarianism (RWA) is a co-variation of social conserva- tism, traditionalism, and authoritarianism. One of the characteristics of RWA is a less malleability of attitudes over time. However, the linkbetween RWA and rigidity of attitudes has mainly been observed in inter- group relation contexts. Such studies focus on the relationship between RWA and attitude change towards real groups. While the value of this work is unde- niable, it is not possible to examine attitude formation and attitude change in a controlled manner. Indeed, studying real social groups implies context effects or social preconceptions on the attitude formation and on attitude change. In this thesis, we are interested in the understanding of RWA in attitude change within a standardized and controlled framework, the evaluative conditioning- counter-conditioning paradigm. Across 11 experiments, we tested whether RWA predicts a lower change of attitude towards new artificial stimuli. We observed that RWA was negatively associated with sensitivity to counter- conditioning. This effect, present in the great majority of our experiments, has been modulated by the characteristics of conditioning-counter-conditioning. More specifically, the amount of counter-attitudinal information available, the presence of instructions, and the decrease in attentional resources were shown to modulate the link between RWA and attitude change. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that a smaller change in attitude is related to RWA even with novel artificial stimuli.

No description available.

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a type of attitude formation in which a stimulus is evaluated as positive or negative based on repeated pairings with valenced stimuli. Emerging evidence suggests that individuals differ in susceptibility to EC and these differences may be related to various social and psychological biases. One variable that has been linked with less negative attitude formation, although not using an EC paradigm, is mindfulness. Further, mindfulness is proposed to alter dimensions of elaboration that may underlie EC, particularly conditioning of negative attitudes. Therefore, three studies were conducted to examine whether mindfulness is linked to differential susceptibility to EC, particularly less conditioning of negative attitudes, and whether aspects of elaboration mediate this proposed relation. In all three studies, participants were exposed to an EC paradigm in which positive and negative pictures were paired with neutral Chinese ideographs. Then, they completed ideograph likability ratings. In Study 1, a measure of trait mindfulness was inversely associated with conditioning of negative attitudes, but not after accounting for negative state affect. In Study 2, there was no relation between either of two measures of trait mindfulness and susceptibility to EC. In Study 3, mindfulness was experimentally manipulated by randomly assigning participants to a mindful breathing induction or a mind-wandering control condition before they completed measures of elaboration and the EC paradigm. As compared to the control condition, the mindfulness condition showed greater susceptibility to conditioning of negative attitudes, after controlling for awareness of the picture-ideograph pairings. There was no support for the proposed mediation models through elaboration in either Studies 2 or 3. However, both studies provided evidence that more mindful individuals demonstrated less cognitive elaboration on negative stimuli. Further, both studies suggested that greater cognitive elaboration in response to pictures predicted less susceptibility to conditioning of positive attitudes and possibly greater susceptibility to conditioning of negative attitudes. Altogether, the three studies provided mixed and inconclusive evidence as to the relation between mindfulness and susceptibility to EC. However, the findings regarding cognitive elaboration may help to advance both the mindfulness and EC literatures.

This dissertation explores how experience and environment impact behavior. In the first chapter, I provide behavioral foundations for a model of taste uncertainty with endogenous learning through consumption. In this setting, uncertainty is over an unobservable, subjective state space. Preference over lottery-menu pairs is sufficient to identify the state space and the learning process. In this model, the agent is viewed as if he learns the utility of an object upon its consumption. This information is used to improve choice from the follow-on menu. This implies a trade-off between consumption value and information leading to experimentation. I provide a behavioral definition of experimentation. While the literature focuses on identifying subjective states through a demand for flexibility, I show that experimentation also (partially) identifies taste uncertainty. The second chapter explores the potential for social networks to affect decisions of political leaders. To this end we construct a database linking European royal kinship networks, monarchies, and wars to study the effect of family ties on conflict. To establish causality, we exploit decreases in connection caused by apolitical deaths of network important individuals. These deaths are associated with substantial increases in the frequency and duration of war. We provide evidence that these deaths affect conflict only through changing the kinship network. Over our period of interest, the percentage of European monarchs with kinship ties increased threefold. Together, these findings help explain the well-documented decrease in European war frequency. The final chapter builds on the robust finding from the psychology literature that the co-presentation of products causes consumers to associate them. Associated products are evaluated more similarly. Supposing that agents behave according to this evidence, I axiomatically derive a tractable utility model of this association effect. In an application, I study a two-product monopolist that can strategically choose whether or not to offer his products under the same brand. I demonstrate that psychological association can provide strict incentives for either brand extension or brand differentiation depending on the distribution of product valuations in the market. Appropriate branding strategies allow firms to extract more surplus from consumers when psychological association is present.

No description available.

L’effet de Conditionnement Evaluatif (CE) correspond au changement de valence émotionnelle d’un stimulus initialement neutre (Stimulus Conditionnel, SC), suite à son association avec un stimulus affectif (Stimulus Inconditionnel, SI). Dans cette thèse, nous abordons le sujet du CE avec une approche fonctionnelle en trois axes. Après une présentation générale de l’effet de CE, nous proposons, dans chacun des axes, la description et l’opérationnalisation de nouvelles procédures expérimentales pour chacune des étapes typiques d’une expérience de CE (Apprentissage, Mesure et Modification).Dans l’axe 1, nous proposons une nouvelle procédure d’apprentissage, utilisant des mouvements en tant que stimuli affectifs. L’axe 2 porte sur la mesure de l’effet de CE, nous y présentons la Semi Implicit Task (SIT) destinée à évaluer l’attitude envers un stimulus. Enfin, l’axe 3 s’intéresse à la modification de l’effet de CE, nous présentons des méthodologies destinées à modifier les affects acquis par des stimuli, avec et sans recours à des interventions verbales.Tout au long de ce travail, pour chacune des méthodologies proposées, les implications théoriques et les applications pratiques, particulièrement en psychothérapie, sont discutées. Dans la dernière partie de cette thèse, nous partageons différentes réflexions théoriques relatives à la fonction et la conceptualisation de l’effet de CE, et présentons quelques perspectives de recherches cliniques. / Evaluative Conditioning (EC) is a change in liking of a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) resulting from its association with an emotional stimulus (Unconditioned stimulus, US). In the present thesis we investigate EC using a functional approach. After a general presentation of EC, we focus on both describing and operationalizating new experimental procedures corresponding to each typical phase of an EC experiment: Learning, Measurement and Modification.First, we describe a new learning procedure using motion as USs. Second, we investigate a new measure of EC that we have called the Semi Implicit Task that assess attitude toward CSs. Finally, we investigate the modification of acquired valences with methodologies based on interventions with and without the use of verbal information.Within this general perspective, we discuss both theoretical implications and practical applications of EC. Regarding the second point, we shed light on potential applications in the domain of clinical psychology.

Cette thèse porte sur l’influence du parrainage dans le sport et de la consommation d’alcool dans les films sur les attitudes implicites vis-à-vis de l’alcool. Peu de recherches portent sur les mécanismes psychologiques permettant d’expliquer l’influence de l’exposition à de la publicité pour de l’alcool sur les comportements de consommation à long terme. L’hypothèse générale soutenue dans cette thèse est qu’un processus de conditionnement évaluatif par fausse attribution affective médiatise l’effet de l’exposition à des stimuli en lien avec l’alcool sur les attitudes implicites vis-à-vis de l’alcool. L’effet de deux autres processus automatiques (i.e. effet de simple exposition, association avec le soi) sont également étudiés. Deux études (1 et 2) ont d’abord été menées afin de mettre en place une induction permettant (i) d’inhiber les processus contrôlés et (ii) de maximiser la fausse attribution affective par inhibition du contrôle attentionnel dans un paradigme de conditionnement évaluatif. Trois études sur le parrainage ont ensuite été menées dans lesquels nous observé un effet de l’exposition au parrainage sur les attitudes implicites (études 3 et 5). L’effet de l’exposition au parrainage peut être expliqué par un effet de simple exposition aux marques (étude 5), cependant, nos données ne nous permettent pas de conclure à un effet de conditionnement évaluatif (étude 4). Deux études sur la représentation de la consommation d’alcool dans les films et les séries télévisées ont permis de mettre en évidence un effet de conditionnement évaluatif indépendant de l’association avec le soi (étude 6), et que cet effet de conditionnement dépendait de processus contrôlés (étude 7). Dans l’ensemble, l’influence du parrainage sur les attitudes implicites semble s’exercer par un effet de simple exposition, tandis que l’influence de la représentation de l’alcool dans les films et séries télévisées semble davantage s’exercer par conditionnement évaluatif et association du concept d’alcool avec le soi. / This thesis focuses on the influence of alcohol sport sponsorship and alcohol consumption in movies on implicit attitudes towards alcohol. Few researches have focused on the mediating psychological mechanisms between exposure to alcohol promotion in media and long-term consumption. Our hypothesis is that evaluative conditioning through affect misattribution mediatizes the effect of exposure to alcohol stimuli on implicit attitudes toward alcohol. The effect of two other automatic processes (i.e. mere exposure effect, association with the self) are also studied. Two studies (1 and 2) were led to test an induction that (i) impairs controlled processes and (ii) maximizes affect misattribution by inhibiting attentional control in an evaluative condition paradigm. Three studies on alcohol sponsorship were then led in which we found a main effect of on implicit attitudes (studies 3 and 5). A mere exposure effect was observed in the study 5, but we found no convincing evidence for evaluative conditioning (study 4). However, we found an evaluative conditioning effect in two studies on alcohol consumption in movies and TV shows which was shown to be independent from association with the self (study 6), as well as relying on controlled processes (study 7). Overall, sponsorship effects on implicit attitudes seems to occur via a mere exposure effect, while alcohol portrayals in movies seems to impact implicit attitudes toward alcohol through evaluative conditioning and association of alcohol with the self.

Résumé : Le Conditionnement Évaluatif (CE) réfère au changement évaluatif d'un Stimulus Neutre (SN) à l'issue des co-expériences relationnelles répétées de celui-ci avec un Stimulus Affectivement signifiant (SA). Les nombreuses divergences empiriques observées dans la littérature suggèrent, d'une part, que des distinctions fonctionnelles sont à faire entre les effets mis en évidence, et d'autre part, que des processus de différente nature puissent intervenir ou être impliqués selon les effets considérés. Ce travail de thèse propose de reconsidérer la variabilité fonctionnelle du CE à travers une approche à multiples processus intégrative et continue, se distinguant des approches à multiples processus du CE classiques sur plusieurs points majeurs, dont : (i) la perspective d'un continuum entre les différents effets ; (ii) la définition et la fonction conférées aux processus associatifs et élaboratifs, envisagés sous-tendre le CE ; (iii) la relation entre ces processus ; et (iv) la nature des contenus mémorisés. Afin de développer ces aspects, nous nous appuierons sur trois points du continuum envisagé (i.e., effets de CE directs, indirects « automatisés », et indirects inférentiels), sachant que chacun de ces points illustrent des effets caractérisés par une émergence plus ou moins automatique, coûteuse, consciente, et/ou contrôlée. La validité empirique de cette approche a été examinée par la mise à l'épreuve des hypothèses concernant la variabilité potentielle dans la facilité de manifestation des effets de CE indirects. À ce titre, 4 expériences ont été effectuées en vue de démontrer que l'émergence d'un CE indirect peut être plus ou moins favorisée selon le degré de propriétés partagées entre le SN et le SA d'un couple donné. Conformément à nos attentes, les résultats obtenus suggèrent que la manifestation d'un CE peut être privilégiée par le partage élevé de propriétés SN-SA. Nous discuterons de la contribution de ces résultats pour l'approche proposée, et plus largement à l'étude du CE. Par ailleurs, les limites méthodologiques et empiriques qui touchent l'ensemble des expériences réalisées, et les perspectives futures quant à l'approche « intégrative et continue » seront considérées. / Abstract: Evaluative Conditioning (EC) can be defined as an evaluative change of a neutral stimulus (i.e., the CS), resulting from the repeated relational experiences between this stimulus and a stimulus affectively significant (i.e., the US). Numerous studies conducted on EC revealed several inconsistent results. These inconsistencies underline that two important distinctions have to be considered. The first one deals with the type of EC effects obtained, either direct or indirect. The other one concerns the type of processes underlying EC effects, associative and elaborative ones. In this thesis, we propose an integrative and continuous approach of EC that takes into account these two distinctions, and offers new insight by considering a possible continuum between direct low-level associative effects and indirect high-level elaborative effects. This perspective differs notably from the multiples processes approach classically adopted in EC. The experimental validity of this “integrative and continuous” view was examined in 4 experiments, by testing the role of the specificity of the CS-US relationship on the facility for indirect EC to emerge. Precisely, we predict that CS-US relationship presenting a high level of common properties (e.g., semantic, perceptive, or lexical properties) leads to the emergence of indirect EC effect in a privileged way. As expected, we observed that CS-US relations that shared a high-level of common properties can generate stronger or exclusive EC effects compared to stimuli that showed low-level common properties. The contribution of these results for the “integrative and continuous” approach and for EC studies is discussed, along with their methodological and empirical limits. Finally, perspectives for the future of our approach are drawn.