title: Self-enhancement or self-coherence? Why people shift visual perspective in mental images of the personal past and future.
abstract: It is often assumed, by laypeople and researchers alike, that people shift visual perspective in mental images of life events to maintain a positive self-concept by claiming ownership of desirable events (first-person) and disowning undesirable events (third-person). The present research suggests that people shift perspective not according to the pictured event's desirability but according to whether they focus on the experience of the event (first-person) or on the event's coherence with the self-concept (third-person). This explains why self-change promotes third-person imagery of prechange selves (Studies 1 and 2). And, the same mechanism determines perspective apart from self-change, in both memory and imagination (Studies 3 and 4). By demonstrating that people shift perspective according to whether they focus on the experience of an event or its self-concept coherence, these results suggest how perspective may function more broadly in social cognition, and specifically in the construction and maintenance of the temporally extended self.
authors.affiliation: Ohio State University, Department of Psychology, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. libby@psy.ohio-state.edu
authors.forename: Lisa K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Libby
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Eibach
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019018:Imagery, Psychotherapy; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009042:Motivation; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult