Affect and preference memory

“An important influence on our preference toward a specific object is its associations with affective information … the authors used a multistage behavioral paradigm that fostered associations between neutral shapes and affective images … propose that the preference for negatively associated items is a manifestation of a mechanism that produces an inherent incentive for rapidly assessing potentially threatening aspects in the environment.” ‘The Influence of Nonremembered Affective Associations on Preference’. Ghuman, Avniel S.; Bar, Moshe. Emotion. 6(2), May 2006, 215-223.