ABSTRACT
It has been a common finding in affective priming studies that there is an affective relationship between the valence of the prime and the valence of the target. In other words, when a target word (such as “jealous”) is presented and must be evaluated as “positive” or “negative”, then response latencies are shorter when it is preceded by a prime stimulus, which is affectively congruent (such as the word “dentist”) than when it is preceded by a prime stimulus, which is affectively incongruent (such as the word “music”). This affective priming effect has been demonstrated using different kinds of priming stimuli. Hermans, Baeyens, & Eelen (1998) showed that olfactory primes speeded up responses latencies for affectively congruent words compared to affectively incongruent words. This effect was present only for female subjects.
