S2 : Ps primed subliminally and supraliminally with image of a naked person

1. The studies reported here provide, for the first time, experimental evidence to support the claim that sexual interest and arousal are associated with motives to form and maintain a close relationship. In five studies, sex-related representations were cognitively primed, either subliminally or supraliminally, by exposing participants to erotic words or pictures as compared with neutral words or pictures. The effects of “sexual priming” on the tendencies to initiate and maintain a close relationship were assessed using various cognitive–behavioral and self-report measures. Supporting the hypotheses, subliminal but not supraliminal exposure to sexual primes increased (a) willingness to self-disclose, (b) accessibility of intimacy-related thoughts, (c) willingness to sacrifice for one’s partner, and (d) preference for using positive conflict-resolution strategies. The article discusses implications of these findings for the role of sex in close relationships and offers a conceptualization of possible relational motives of the sexual behavioral system.

2. Purpose: To provide empirical support for a causal directional relationship between sex and motivation to form and maintain relationships. General paradigm of 5 studies: primed with sexual stimulus  mask  furniture decision task (20 trials) S1: Ps primed subliminally (30 ms) and supraliminally (500 ms) with image of a naked person DV: willingness to self-disclose S1: S2: Ps primed subliminally and supraliminally with image of a naked person DV: willingness to self-sacrifice for partner S3: Ps primed subliminally only with image of a naked person during furniture task and before being presented with 15 sentences about intimacy and 15 sentences about achievement DV: implicit measure of prorelational tendencies (recognition of intimacy sentences) S3: S4: Ps primed subliminally only with image of a naked person during furniture task and before being presented with 15 sentences about positive and negative conflict resolution DV: agreement with positive conflict resolution sentences S4: S5: Same as S4 but primed with the word “sex” instead of image of naked person

3. Elise Rice

4. Impulsive trust = automatic component Reflective trust = deliberative component Previous research treated trust solely in terms of consciously held beliefs. This work adopts a dual process framework (Figure 1) to describe the connection between trust and self-protective behavior. Results Study 1: subliminal conditioning (+ partner) increases trust Study 2: above effects not due to priming Study 3: WMC moderates effect Study 4: impulsive x reflective interaction (Figure 3) Study 5: impulsive x reflective x WMC interaction Study 6: 3-way interaction for overtly self-protective behavior Conclusions **Automatic partner evaluations constitute a form of trust. **Impulsive trust regulates the “safety signal” conveyed by reflective trust, especially when WMC is low (i.e., high load). Elise Rice

5. JPSP 2008

6. Study 1 Study 2 Study 4

7. Assessing the Seeds of Relationship Decay: Using Implicit Evaluations to Detect the Early Stages of DisillusionmentLee et al. 2009 Using two longitudinal samples, we sought to identify the beginnings of relationship decay by validating the partner-focused go/no-go association task (partner-GNAT), an implicit measure assessing evaluations of romantic partners. In Study 1, we assessed positive and negative attitudes using generic positive and negative stimulus words (e.g., gift and death, respectively) as targets, whereas in Study 2, we used relationship-specific positive and negative stimulus words (e.g., accepting and attacking, respectively) as targets. Results from both samples showed that positive implicit partner evaluations were associated with a reduced risk of breakup over the following 12 months, even after controlling for self-reported relationship satisfaction, hostile conflict, and neuroticism. This suggests that the earliest seeds of relationship decay might be found within attitudes that subjects might be unaware of or are unable or unwilling to report. Both studies also offered support for the importance of negative implicit partner evaluations. In Study 1, this support was in the form of an interaction (revealing that individuals with both low positive and high negative evaluations were at greatest risk for breakup). In Study 2, this support was in the form of a main effect (negative implicit partner evaluations marginally predicted increased risk of breakup).

8. Implicit measure: partner-focused go/no-go association task (partner GNAT) • Study 1: generic positive and negative stimulus words (gift, peace, vacation and death, accident, tragedy) • Study 2: relationship-specific positive and negative words (understanding, sharing, accepting and attacking, nagging, criticizing) • Follow up relationship surveys at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12 months (study 1) and 3, 6, 9, 12 months (study 2)

9. Outsourcing Self-Regulation Gráinne M. Fitzsimonsand Eli J. Finkel (2011) Abstract Three studies demonstrate a novel phenomenon—self-regulatory outsourcing—in which thinking about how other people can be instrumental (i.e., helpful) for a given goal undermines motivation to expend effort on that goal. In Experiment 1, participants who thought about how their partner helped them with health goals (as opposed to career goals) planned to spend less time and effort on health goals in the upcoming week. This pattern was stronger for depleted participants than for nondepleted participants. In Experiment 2, participants who thought about how their partner helped them with academic-achievement goals procrastinated more, leaving themselves less time for an academic task, than did participants in two control conditions. This pattern was stronger for participants who were told that procrastinating would drain their resources for the academic task than for participants who were told that procrastinating would not drain their resources for that task. In Experiment 3, participants who decreased their effort after thinking of an instrumental significant other reported higher relationship commitment to that individual than did participants who did not decrease their effort. The possibility for shared (or transactive) self-regulation is discussed.

10. Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Experiment 3 Fig. 1. Results from Experiment 1: planned pursuit of the focal goal as a function of depletion (low or high) and partner-instrumentality condition (control goal or focal goal). Fig. 2. Results from Experiment 2: time spent on the distractor task as a function of task frame (depleting or nondepleting) and instrumentality condition (control nongoal, control goal, or focal goal). Fig. 3. Results from Experiment 3: planned pursuit of the focal goal as a function of instrumentality condition (control goal, control nongoal, or focal goal).