DO BLURRED FACES MAGNIFY PRIMING EFFECTS? THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF PERCEPTUAL FLUENCY AND PRIMING ON IMPRESSION FORMATION

How do subtle subliminal cues such as perceptual fluency (e.g., the visual clarity of a face) and priming influence the way we form impressionS of people? In this experiment, participants (N = 114) received an affective priming manipulation, and then viewed sharp (perceptually fluent) or slightly blurred (disfluent) photographs of target individuals. Impressions were assessed on a trait checking task, a trait rating task, and open-ended descriptions, and processing latency was also measured. Results indicated that both positive primes and greater fluency increased the positivity of impressions. In an interesting pattern, priming effects were greater for perceptually disfluent (blurred) faces, consistent with disfluent images also triggering more elaborate, constructive, and longer processing. These results are discussed in terms of the important and so far little understood interactive role of priming and fluency cues in impression formation judgments in everyday life.