of higher-order cognitive processes. Thus far, however, such studies have focused primarily on demonstrating the presence of main effects of sensory states on psychological processes. Thus, the extant literature sometimes provides a view in which sensory primes seem to activate higher-order psychological processes in a relatively constant fashion across people and situations.
Nevertheless, there are reasons to think that effects of haptic sensations on psychological processes depend on the perceiver's current motivations. Because motivations vary considerably across individuals and situations, the effects of sensory primes too may vary across people and situations. Thus, an important step toward understanding the motivational properties of sensory priming effects is to delineate their boundary conditions (i.e., moderating factors; see Bargh, 2006; Meier, Schnall, Schwarz, & Bargh, 2012).
We propose that low-level sensory experiences interact with features of the person and the situation to shape how people interface with the social world. Classic perspectives in social psychology em- phasize the importance of person by situation interactions (Lewin, 1935). In particular, psychological processes are influenced by an interplay between goals within the perceiver and motivationally relevant