Red Roses and Gift Chocolates Are Judged More Positively in the U.S. Near Valentine’s Day: Evidence of Naturally Occurring Cultural Priming

Vivian Zayas, Gayathri Pandey, Joshua Tabak

Attitudes are not static, but constructed at the moment of the evaluation, incorporating temporary contextual influences. How do meaningful events that naturally occur within a culture, such as a national holiday, shape evaluative judgments of objects related to the holiday? We focused on evaluations of red roses and gift chocolates, which are everyday objects, but also iconic of Valentine's Day in the U.S. We reasoned that if cultural events shape evaluations, then roses and chocolates would be evaluated differently near Valentine's Day. Using a large and diverse U.S. sample, we found that as Valentine's Day neared, evaluations of roses and chocolates (but not a comparison object) were evaluated more positively. Increases in positivity of roses and chocolates covaried with their increased cultural relevance, as quantified by the volume of web search queries involving these terms. These findings provide a demonstration of naturally occurring cultural priming by which the salience of cultural events shape evaluations.