Affectual dynamics in simple sentences.

Original attitudes toward words predict attitudes resulting when the words are combined into simple assertions. For example, attitudes toward "father," "kill," and "uncle" predict how one feels toward all three after the assertion "the father killed the uncle." The prediction equation involves terms for the original subject attitude (S), the original verb attitude ( V ) , and the interaction of V and object attitudes (Q). The level of prediction is high, with original attitudes accounting for two-thirds of the total variance in resultant attitudes. Activity connotations can be predicted in the same way, except that a V X Q interaction term is unnecessary. Potency connotations also appear to be predictable, but the obtained data do not permit firm generalizations.