Evaluative conditioning (EC) is an affective learning through which a neutral stimulus acquires emotional valence after repeated pairing with an emotionally valenced unconditioned stimulus (US). Although EC is robust, interindividual variability in its magnitude remains insufficiently explained. The present study examines whether alexithymia moderates evaluative conditioning.
From an affective learning perspective, alexithymia may reduce EC through at least one key mechanism: a diminished perception of emotional stimuli, leading to weaker EC effect. Participants first completed standardized self-report measures of alexithymia. They then performed an evaluative conditioning task in which neutral stimuli were paired with positive or negative emotional images, followed by explicit valence ratings of the neutral stimuli.
Analyses using linear mixed models indicate that higher alexithymia is associated with a weaker evaluative conditioning effect. This seems due to a diminished perception of emotional stimuli (USs) leading to weaker transfer of affective valence to the conditioned stimuli (CSs).
These findings contribute to ongoing debates on the mechanisms underlying EC by highlighting the role of emotional awareness in the perception of affective stimuli and the formation of affective associations, with implications for both clinical and social psychology.