Goals can determine what people want to feel (e.g., Tamir et al., 2008), but can they do so even when they are primed outside of conscious awareness? In two studies, participants wanted to feel significantly less angry after they were implicitly primed with a collaboration goal, compared to a neutral prime. These effects were found with different implicit priming manipulations, direct and indirect measures of emotional preferences, and when controlling for concurrent emotional experiences. The effects were obtained in social contexts in which the potential for collaboration was relatively higher (Study 1) and lower Study 2). Also, similar effects were found when collaboration was activated nonconsciously (Studies 1–2) and consciously (Study 2). By showing that nonconscious goals can shape emotional preferences, we demonstrate that what people want to feel can be determined by factors they are unaware of.

A survey of 286 White and Black female college students examined the racial differences in perception of thin media images and its relation to personal importance of thinness and fear of fat. Consistent with the intergroup literature and social identity theory, this study demonstrated that Black women rated thin media images less desirable and endorsed thinness less strongly than their White counterparts. Perceived desirability of thin media images was related to greater personal endorsement of thinness among both White and Black women but related only to White women's, not to Black women's, fear of fat. Racial identity interacted with race in predicting personal endorsement of thinness, with the highest ratings among high White identifiers and the lowest ratings among high Black identifiers. It did not, however, interact with perceived desirability of thin media images in predicting fear of fat.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract