title: Wanting to Be Different Predicts Nonmotivated Change: Actual-Desired Self-Discrepancies and Susceptibility to Subtle Change Inductions.
abstract: Actual-desired discrepancies in people's self-concepts represent structural incongruities in their self-representations that can lead people to experience subjective conflict. Theory and research suggest that structural incongruities predict susceptibility to subtle influences like priming and conditioning. Although typically examined for their motivational properties, we hypothesized that because self-discrepancies represent structural incongruities in people's self-concepts, they should also predict susceptibility to subtle influences on people's active self-views. Across three studies, we found that subtle change inductions (self-evaluative conditioning and priming) exerted greater impact on active self-perceptions and behavior as actual-desired self-discrepancies increased in magnitude. Exploratory analyses suggested that these changes occurred regardless of the compatibility of the change induction with individuals' desired self-views.
authors.affiliation: University at Buffalo, NY, USA kgdemarree@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Kenneth G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: DeMarree
authors.affiliation: Ohio University, Athens, USA.
authors.forename: Kimberly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rios
authors.affiliation: Cameron University, Lawton, OK, USA.
authors.forename: J Adam
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Randell
authors.affiliation: Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
authors.forename: S Christian
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Wheeler
authors.affiliation: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA.
authors.forename: Darcy A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Petty
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012649:Self Concept
keywords: priming; self-concept; self-discrepancies; self-esteem