Changing prejudice with evaluative conditioning

The presented study investigates attitude change using a cross-modal evaluative conditioning (EC) paradigm. EC is a change in evaluative responses towards initially neutral stimulus (CS) due to its repeated pairing with affectively valenced stimulus (US). A positive scent of instant chocolate (US+) was used together with pictures of homeless people (US-) to change affective responses towards neutral names (CS). We show that a classic EC effect, i.e. more negative CS evaluations after its pairing with negative images of the homeless, can be eliminated when a competitive US, i.e. a positive chocolate scent, is present in the environment. Additionally, the study demonstrates chocolate scent selectively increased attitude towards homeless as measured by perceived distance to self and a self-report questionnaire. Moreover, this effect was not mediated by mood changes. We argue that scents can be used to change attitudes towards stigmatized groups.