The effects of cognitive and affective priming on law of contagion appraisals

The law of contagion is the magical belief that contagion can spread in an absolute fashion despite minimal contact, extreme lapses in time, and many degrees of removal. Research suggests that two broad mechanisms may underlie inflated law of contagion beliefs and appraisals. These include cognitive (attention, informational) and affective (disgust). The present study tested the effects of cognitive-informational (script that described the spreading nature of germs) and affective (disgust odorant) priming on law of contagion appraisals using the chain of contagion task. Results showed that disgust priming had a non-significant impact on law of contagion appraisals while cognitive-informational priming caused participants to appraise contagion as being able to spread in a more virulent fashion. These data are consistent with previous research and support the idea that appraisals related to the law of contagion can be affected by informational manipulations. Results are discussed in relation to contamination fears in OCD.