Russell Fazio

Russell H. Fazio (born October 9, 1952 in Utica (New York) ) is an American social psychologist. His research focuses on attitudes , in particular their automatic activation (so-called affective priming ), as they come to light in prejudices and stereotypes . He developed experimental paradigms with which the actual attitudes can be measured, that is, without falsification by social desirability or the like.

Career

Russell Fazio studied psychology at Cornell University from 1970 to 1974 ; his bachelor's degree was rated summa cum laude . Here he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa . He then moved to Princeton University , where he earned his master's degree in 1976 and his doctorate in 1978 with a grant from the National Science Foundation . His career as a psychology professor began in 1978 at Indiana University , where he remained until 2001. In November 1997 he spent a research stay at the University of Exeter . In 2001 Fazio went to Ohio State University , where he now holds the Harold E. Burtt Chair. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Affective priming

Contents of the implicit memory influence behavior without being aware of it. For example, people do not notice their own prejudices. Building on the lexical priming paradigm of Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971), Fazio developed an objective measurement method for attitudes . The test subjects should rate words ( target ) as positive or negative as quickly as possible by pressing a button after they have previously been presented with another stimulus ( prime ). This can be, for example, another emotional word or a photo. This stimulus is only presented for a short period of time (a few 100 ms) or below the perception threshold ( subliminal priming ). The prime stimulus activates equally valued memory contents through association . The reaction time is shorter if the prime and target trigger the same affects, i.e. are congruent in their evaluation. On the other hand, the reaction time is longer if the prime and target trigger different affects, i.e. are incongruent in their evaluation. Example: The word "friendly" is rated faster (positive) if the prime stimulus is the word "beautiful" than if the prime stimulus is the word "ugly" (incongruent affect). The same effect occurs if one uses photos of members of one's own ethnic group or of another ethnic group as the prime stimulus. Even if the test subjects consider themselves to be free of prejudice, they are significantly more likely to associate photos of people in their own group with positive and photos of other groups with negative words. One advantage of affective priming compared to conventional methods for measuring attitudes such as questionnaires is that the attitudes of the test subjects are recorded indirectly from their reactions. Since the test persons have to react very quickly and the priming stimuli are irrelevant for their actual task (the evaluation of the target stimuli), one can assume that the results of the affective priming reflect spontaneous evaluations. This makes it less likely that they are influenced by the propensity for socially desirable answers.

Affective priming literature

KC Klauer & J. Musch (2003). Affective priming: Findings and theories . In KC Klauer & J. Musch (eds.), The Psychology of Evaluation: Affective Processes in Cognition and Emotion (pp. 7-49). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
I. Wegener, A. Wawrzyniak, K. Imbierowicz, R. Conrad, J. Musch, F. Geiser, F. Wermter & R. Liedtke (2004). Affective Priming in Obese Patients: The Role of Automatic Assessment Processes in Obesity . Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Medical Psychology , 54, p. 116
KC Klauer & J. Musch (2001). Does sunshine prime loyal? Affective priming in the naming task . Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A, 727-751

Individual evidence

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Fazio, Russell
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Fazio, Russell H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American social psychologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	October 9, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH	Utica (New York)

[1] R. Fazio, M. Olson (2003). Implicit measures in social cognition research: their meaning and use . Annual review of psychology, 54, pp. 297–327 (pdf; 248 kB)

[2] On the automatic activation of associated evaluations: An Overview. Cognition and Emotion , 2001, 15 (2), 115–141 (pdf; 217 kB)