In the "Donald" experiment, what significantly affected participants' feelings about Donald?

The correct answer highlights how the initial exposure to certain words can influence participants' perceptions and feelings about Donald. In this experiment, participants were first exposed to descriptive words that conjured either positive or negative connotations before reading a passage about Donald. This priming effect demonstrated that the specific language used to describe him shaped their interpretations and emotional responses.

Priming, a central concept in social psychology, refers to the process whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to another stimulus, often without conscious guidance. In this case, regardless of the content of the passage itself, the prior exposure to positively or negatively loaded words significantly altered how participants viewed Donald, underscoring the power of language and context in shaping perceptions.

Other options do not emphasize this crucial aspect of how mental associations formed from prior information can sway evaluations. The order of the passage read might influence the flow of information but does not inherently change how the individual feels about the character in question. The participant's prior knowledge could impact their interpretations to some extent, but it is the specific framing through wording that plays a more significant role in this experiment. Length of the passage would influence comprehension or engagement, but it does not directly relate to the emotional impact analyzed in the study.