Reducing Child-Related Negative Attitudes, Attributions of Hostile Intent, Anger, Harsh Parenting Behaviors, and Punishment Through Evaluative Conditioning

Six studies explored the extent to which evaluative conditioning (EC) can change adults’ child-related attitudes and expectations. A subset of studies also investigated the extent to which EC can change child-related attributions of hostile intent, anger, use of harsh discipline, and use of punishment. An initial study demonstrated that a brief EC procedure increased positive attitudes, decreased negative attitudes, and decreased expected need...