Changing CS features alters evaluative responses in evaluative conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to changes in people's evaluative responses toward initially neutral stimuli (CSs) by mere spatial and temporal contiguity with other positive or negative stimuli (USs). We investigate whether changing CS features from conditioning to evaluation also changes people's evaluative response toward these CSs. We used computer-generated male faces as CSs and paired them with other positively or negatively evaluated faces. When participants evaluated the CS faces, they either appeared unchanged, with glasses, with beards, or glasses and beards. Unchanged faces showed a clear conditioning effect, while all other face versions showed no significant conditioning effects. The conditioning effect also depended on participants’ awareness of a CS's respective US. These results mirror configural explanations of stimulus generalization in classical conditioning, with implications for EC as explanation for attitude acquisition and learning of likes and dislikes in everyday life.

► We investigate whether changing CS features changes participants’ evaluative responses.
► We show clear evaluative conditioning effects for male computer-generated faces.
► These effects occur only for unchanged faces; adding glasses and/or beards to the faces after conditioning inhibits the evaluative response.
► The results mirror configural explanations of stimulus generalization in classical conditioning.
► The results have important implications for the application of evaluative conditioning procedures in real-life situations.