Supplemental Material for Motive-Modulated Attentional Orienting: Implicit Power Motive Predicts Attentional Avoidance of Signals of Interpersonal Dominance

Abstract

Implicit motives are commonly believed to orient behavior. Despite only sparse empirical evidence for this claim, an interplay of implicit motives and the attentional system seems plausible. In two pre-registered eye-tracking studies (total N = 263 after exclusions), we tested whether the implicit power motive (nPower), the capacity to derive pleasure from having impact on others, measured via the Picture Story Exercise, predicted participants’ attentional orienting. Participants were simultaneously presented neutral faces and facial expressions of emotion (FEEs), with the latter signaling either dominance or submission. In both studies, nPower predicted initial avoidance of anger FEEs, which were deemed to be an aversive dominance signal. Initial orienting towards submissive FEEs was not predicted significantly by nPower. Results are discussed in the light of recent findings in neuroscience and with reference to limitations of our design. Our findings suggest that implicit motives do have an orienting function regarding initial responses to the encounter of interpersonal dominance signals.