Abstract: Investigated the condition, function, intention and direction of the exemplar-activation effects in social judgment. Ss were 160 sophomores in the Department of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, China. The results suggested: (1) The exemplar-activation effect exists in both strong and weak priming conditions, and takes the forms of assimilation effect. (2) Under the strong priming condition, the exemplar-activation effect is significant. Furthermore, two kinds of exemplars (positive, negative) both show assimilation effects on each target of valences (positive, negative). But the positive exemplar shows stronger effect on the negative target than on the positive one. And the negative exemplar shows stronger effect on the positive target than on the negative one. (3) Under weak priming condition, the valence of exemplar and the valence of target jointly affect social judgment and its process of decision-making, and the effects of exemplar activation are weakened: ①overall, the significant effects of exemplar activation emerge only on the negative target; ②comparing the intensity of specific exemplar effects on the positive target with that of negative target, it reveals that the positive exemplar shows greater effect on the negative target, but the effects of negative exemplar is not significant. And “relation effect”could dilute the effects of exemplar activation

Key words: social judgement, exemplar activation, assimilation effect, strong priming, weak priming