We like it ‘cause you take it: Vicarious effects of approach/avoidance behaviours on observers.

We investigated the effects of social learning on the formation of attitudes toward previously unknown consumer products (different brands of food). More specifically, we examined social/vicarious effects of approach/avoidance: the impact that approach and avoidance behaviours have on the attitudes of individuals who do not enact them but, instead, learn that others have performed them. We will present the results of a series of 5 experiments. In each study, participants read a short story describing a fictitious character who approached a food brand and discarded another in a virtual reality game. Next, they answered an IAT and a questionnaire regarding their preferences for the two brands. The results consistently show that: (a) participants subsequently prefer the approached object as compared to the avoided one (vicarious approach/avoidance); (b) this vicarious effect also emerged when participants were informed that the model was a mere executor because the decision as to which object to approach and which to avoid was taken through a coin toss. These results have theoretical implications regarding attitudes and attitude change. They also have practical implications for developing interventions aimed at attitude formation and protecting the public from unwanted persuasion attempts.