THE EFFECT OF APPETITIVE STIMULI ON SOCIAL ORIENTATION

Abstract

The current research investigated the effects of appetitive stimuli on social orientation. Specifically, the authors proposed that individuals exposed to appetitive stimuli, compared to those who are not, will experience a shift in motivational orientation towards the self, leading them to focus inwardly on personal conditions and become more motivated to pursue outcomes beneficial to the self rather than outcomes beneficial to others. Two studies examined this hypothesis. Experiment 1 exposed participants to sexual cues and non-appetitive cues, and found that male participants who were exposed to the sexual stimuli became more self-oriented than those who were not. This effect was not evident among females. Experiment 2 focused on donation behavior of the participants under the same stimuli conditions. While the results did not appear to be consistent with the hypothesis, it stimulated thinking about the possibility that close-others could be included as part of one’s self-concept, as well as the possibility that appetitive stimuli could influence egoistically-motivated and altruistically-motivated helping behavior differentially. The authors suggest a follow-up experiment to test these arguments and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this research.