The impact of awareness in affective learning : contribution to research on the mere exposure effect and evaluative conditioning

Our attitudes are some of the major determinants of our behavior. It is thanks to and through them that we perform most of our daily decisions. Some of our attitudes are innate, but others are developed during our lives. The central question of this thesis is to understand if it is possible to develop an attitude toward an object or product without being aware that the object or product was presented. To investigate this question, we will use mere-exposure effect and evaluative conditioning. In order to better understand the role of awareness, the research presented in this thesis will directly manipulate awareness during information exposition. The role of cognitive resources, emotions, goals or individual differences will be investigated to understand whether an attitude can develop without awareness.