From seeing to being: subliminal social comparisons affect implicit and explicit self-evaluations. uri icon

abstract

  • 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.

published proceedings

  • J Pers Soc Psychol

altmetric score

  • 0.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Stapel, D. A., & Blanton, H.

citation count

  • 122

complete list of authors

  • Stapel, Diederik A||Blanton, Hart

publication date

  • October 2004