The pen is mightier than the word: Object priming of evaluative standards

Because red pens are closely associated with error-marking and poor performance, the use of red pens when correcting student work can activate these concepts. People using red pens to complete a word-stem task completed more words related to errors and poor performance than did people using black pens (Study 1), suggesting relatively greater accessibility of these concepts. Moreover, people using red pens to correct essays marked more errors (Study 2) and awarded lower grades (Study 3) than people using blue pens. Thus, despite teachers’ efforts to free themselves from extraneous influences when grading, the very act of picking up a red pen can bias their evaluations. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Teachers try to be fair when evaluating student work. They turn off the television, close the window, and otherwise free themselves from distraction. Many teachers correct papers in short bursts to minimize the effects of fatigue; some even counterbalance the papers’ order or read them anonymously to maximize equitable evaluation. Clearly, when teachers pick up their red pens, they make every effort to free themselves from extraneous influence, but it may already be too late: Once the red pen is in hand, they may have already lost. Writing in red is widely associated with correction and evaluative harshness. The American Heritage Dictionary (1992) defines Red-pencil as ‘‘to censor, cut, revise, or correct’’. Red pens (1992) are used to indicate mistakes, and have been used in this way for some 300 years (Aoki, 2004). In fact, the strength of this association has been explicitly recognized by school districts in England, the United States, and Australia, who have recommended that teachers stop using red pens because the sight of papers covered in red corrections is stressful to students (Aoki, 2004; Feller, 2005; Hale, 2003; Lion, 2008). Because of this long-standing association, we propose that red pens are not neutral objects, but rather are laden with meaning; as such, they could potentially prime the concepts with which they are associated. In addition to the many experiments demonstrating the behavioral impact of various subliminal and subtle presentations of words and images (e.g., on computer screens), a small but growing body of research has shown that physical objects and environments can also influence cognition and behavior. For instance, the presence of guns can intensify aggression (Berkowitz & LePage, 1967), the trappings of the business world induce more competitive behavior (Kay, Wheeler, Bargh, & Ross, 2004), and merely seeing a sports drink leads participants to perform with greater endurance (Friedman & Elliot, artment of Psychology, California State University, 376 Sierra Hall, 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, un.edu s, Ltd. Received 28 June 2009 Accepted 18 February 2010 Object priming of evaluative standards 705 2008). The presence of funeral homes can increase charitable behavior (Jonas, Schimel, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2002), and even the height of a room’s ceiling can influence cognitive processing (Meyers-Levy & Zhu, 2007). These examples of object priming show that, in essence, any object that is closely associated with a concept could potentially influence behavior by making that concept more accessible. Colors, too, carry implicit associations that can influence cognition and behavior. Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman, and Meinhardt (2007) found that participants exposed to red writing on the cover of an experimental packet performed more poorly on a subsequent anagram task compared to participants exposed to green or black writing. In subsequent studies, Elliot et al. (2007) demonstrated that even brief exposure to the color red could produce this effect, and provided evidence suggesting that the effect takes place outside participants’ conscious awareness. Further evidence that the link between red and failure is automatic was recently provided by Moller, Elliot, and Maier (2010), who found that words related to failure and negativity were responded to more quickly if they were displayed in red compared to other colors. More recent research, however, suggests that exposure to red is not always linked to impaired performance and negativity. Mehta and Zhu (2009) conducted a series of studies comparing the effects of exposure to red and blue in a variety of contexts. They found that red increased the accessibility of avoidance-related words, whereas blue increased the accessibility of approach-related words. Participants preferred prevention-oriented products (e.g., a toothpaste that reduces the incidence of cavities) to promotion-oriented products (a toothpaste that whitens teeth) when their computer screens had red backgrounds; they had the opposite preferences when their screens had blue backgrounds. In the context of product design, participants who designed a children’s toy using parts drawn in red produced toys that were judged to be more appropriate and practical; those who used parts drawn in blue produced designs that were more creative. Mehta and Zhu (2009) suggest that exposure to red facilitates effective performance of tasks that demand vigilance, attention, and a focus on detail. In the context of achievement, exposure to red induces participants to adopt an avoidance orientation. Elliot, Maier, Binser, Friedman, and Pekrun (2009) demonstrated that participants briefly exposed to red on the cover of a test they were about to take exhibited more avoidance behaviors (knocking fewer times on a laboratory door, physically leaning further away from a computer screen displaying the test) than did participants exposed to other colors. These behaviors were only observed when participants were taking a test; however, an otherwise equivalent context unrelated to achievement (making ratings of likeability) revealed no differences between colors. This avoidance orientation, then, likely explains how red affects performance on anagrams and similar tasks (Elliot et al., 2007). Because the color red is implicitly associated with avoidance and failure, and red pens specifically have long been associated with errors, we propose that exposure to a red pen activates the concepts of errors, poor performance, and evaluative harshness. In the current paper, we conducted three studies to demonstrate the activation of these concepts and assess the influence of red pens on error-marking and evaluation in a realistic context. Study 1 examined whether the use of red pens increases the cognitive accessibility of the concepts of errors and evaluative harshness. Study 2 examined whether participants mark more errors when using red pens than when using blue pens. Study 3 compared the subjective evaluations made by people using red pens to those made by people using blue pens.