From seeing to being: subliminal social comparisons affect implicit and explicit self-evaluations.
The authors hypothesize that social comparisons can have automatic influences on self-perceptions. This was tested by determining whether subliminal exposure to comparison information influences implicit and explicit self-evaluation. Study 1 showed that subliminal exposure to social comparison information increased the accessibility of the self. Study 2 revealed that subliminal exposure to social comparison information resulted in a contrast effect on explicit self-evaluation. Study 3 showed that subliminal exposure to social comparison information affects self-evaluations more easily than it affects mood or evaluations of other people. Studies 4 and 5 replicated these self-evaluation effects and extended them to implicit measures. Study 6 showed that automatic comparisons are responsive to a person's perceptual needs, such that they only occur when people are uncertain about themselves. Implications for theories of social cognition, judgment, and comparison are discussed.
Stapel
Diederik A
DA
Social and Organizational Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands. d.a.stapel@ppsw.rug.nl
Blanton
Hart
H
D000339:Affect; D003071:Cognition; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D013359:Sublimation, Psychological