Masked affective priming by name letters: Evidence for a correspondence of explicit and implicit self-esteem

In an affective priming experiment (N = 60), participants’ initials were used as masked primes. We found a significant priming effect (denoting positivity of the personal initials) if personal initials (compared to yoked participants’ initials) were followed by other-relevant positive or negative targets (e.g., honest, cruel). For possessor-relevant targets (e.g., healthy, lonely), there was no main effect of priming. However, this priming index positively correlated with explicit self-esteem. For participants with high self esteem, a positive effect was found, whereas for participants with low self-esteem, a negative effect was found.     

When a threat to the brand is a threat to the self: the importance of brand identification and implicit self-esteem in predicting defensiveness

This research examines how people respond when a commercial brand they identify with is threatened. Across four studies, the authors found that among participants who identified with a brand, a threat to the brand elicited the same responses as a threat to the self. Specifically, participants with low implicit self-esteem defended the brand when the self was activated, unlike their high implicit self-esteem counterparts. In addition, brand defense was reduced when individuals had the opportunity to affirm a valued aspect of their self-concept. These findings suggest that when a brand that people identify with is threatened, they may defend the brand to preserve the integrity of the self. More broadly, these findings are consistent with the notion that brands may be included into the extended self-concept, which supports William James's original ideas concerning the breadth and heterogeneity of the self.     

What's in a name: what analyst and patient call each other

Awkward moments often arise between patient and analyst involving the question, "What do we call each other?" The manner in which the dyad address each other contains material central to the patient's inner life. Names, like dreams, deserve a privileged status as providing a royal road into the paradoxical analytic relationship and the unconscious conflicts that feed it. Whether an analyst addresses the patient formally, informally, or not at all, awareness of the issues surrounding names is important.     

Goldberg revisited: What's in an author's name

The present research was a replication and extension of Goldberg's 1968 study of performance evaluation. 360 college students (180 male; 180 female) were asked to evaluate an academic article in the fields of politics, psychology of women or education (judged masculine, feminine, and neutral, respectively) that was written either by a male, female, or an author whose name was initialized. Results indicated that the articles were differentially perceived and evaluated according to the name of the author. An article written by a male was evaluated more favorably than if the author was not male. Subjects' bias against women was stronger when they believed the author with the initialized name was female.     

Discrepancies between implicit and explicit self-esteem: implications for narcissism and self-esteem instability

ABSTRACT There appear to be two forms of high self-esteem: secure high self-esteem (which is often linked with psychological health) and fragile high self-esteem (which is generally associated with poor psychological adjustment and impaired interpersonal relationships). Discrepant high self-esteem is a form of fragile self-esteem characterized by high explicit self-esteem and low implicit self-esteem. The present study examined whether discrepant high self-esteem was associated with narcissism and self-esteem instability in an undergraduate sample. Using multiple measures of implicit self-esteem, two basic findings emerged from the present study. First, participants with discrepant high self-esteem possessed the highest levels of narcissism. Second, participants with high explicit self-esteem and high implicit self-esteem displayed the most stable self-esteem. Findings are discussed in terms of secure and fragile high self-esteem.     

What lies beneath: Parenting style and implicit self-esteem

The current studies extend previous research on self-esteem by examining one of the likely origins of implicit self-esteem. Three studies showed that young adult children who reported that their parents were more nurturing reported higher implicit self-esteem compared with those whose parents were less nurturing. Studies 2 and 3 added a measure of overprotectiveness and revealed that children who reported that their parents were overprotective also reported lower implicit self-esteem. Moreover, Study 3 revealed that mothers’ independent reports of their early interactions with their children were also related to children’s level of implicit self-esteem. In all three studies, these findings remained reliable when we controlled statistically for participants’ explicit self-esteem. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature validating the construct of implicit self-esteem.     

Using the implicit association test across cultures: A case of implicit self-esteem in Japan and Canada

Previous research has suggested that implicit self-esteem might be universally positive. In the present study implicit self-esteem, as measured by the implicit association test (IAT), was found to be positive in both Japanese and Canadian participants. However, contrary to prior research, Japanese participants were found to have significantly lower implicit self-esteem than Canadians. Japanese participants also had lower scores on an exploratory measure of collective implicit self-esteem. In general, the results of the present study point to the complexities in the study of implicit self-esteem across cultures. Inconsistencies between the present and previous research might reflect divergent methodologies used in the IAT. The applicability of the IAT in a cross-cultural setting is discussed.     

Romantic jealousy and implicit and explicit self-esteem

Research on romantic jealousy and self-esteem mostly relies on the measurement of explicit (i.e., conscious, deliberate) aspects, without taking recent developments of the measurement of implicit (i.e., automatic) aspects into account. In this study (N = 154), we applied several measures of romantic jealousy and self-esteem (explicit, implicit), finding sex-specific as well as measurement-specific effects. Men (but not women) higher in jealousy had lower explicit self-esteem, whereas women (but not men) higher in jealousy had higher implicit self-esteem, but only when using the Implicit Association Test (whereas not the Initial Preference Task) for measuring implicit self-esteem. Individuals with damaged (i.e., low explicit and high implicit) self-esteem were more jealous than those with fragile (i.e., high explicit and low implicit) self-esteem. This differential effect was due to higher implicit self-esteem among women, whereas lower explicit self-esteem among men. These novel findings not only add to the expanding literature on romantic jealousy research, but also to research on self-esteem discrepancies.     

Intuition and the correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem

Four studies tested whether the perceived validity of intuition increases the correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem. Studies 1 and 2 found, with 2 different measures of implicit self-esteem, that people who chronically view their intuition as valid have more consistent implicit and explicit self-esteem. In contrast, people with relatively low faith in their intuition had a negative relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem, suggesting that they may overcorrect their explicit self-views for the potential bias posed by implicit self-esteem. In Studies 3 and 4, participants who were induced to view their intuition as valid reported explicit self-views (self-evaluations made under time pressure, or state self-esteem) that were more consistent with their implicit self-esteem. These results suggest that people experience implicit self-esteem as intuitive evaluations. The correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem among individuals who view their intuition as valid may suggest that these individuals incorporate implicit self-esteem into their explicit self-views.     

Changing explicit and implicit attitudes: The case of self-esteem

Three experiments investigated predictions concerning asymmetrical patterns of implicit and explicit self-esteem change. Specifically, we investigated the influence of knowledge about the own self that is momentarily salient as well as the influence of affective valence associated with the self in memory on implicit and explicit self-esteem. The latter was induced by evaluative conditioning, the former by directed thinking about oneself. We found that while evaluative conditioning changed implicit but not explicit self-esteem (Experiment 1), thinking about the own self altered explicit but not implicit self-esteem (Experiment 2). Moreover, in a third experiment, it could be shown that the effect of evaluative conditioning can spill over to the explicit level when participants are asked to focus on their feelings prior to making their self-report judgements (Experiment 3). Implications of our results are discussed in terms of recent controversies regarding dual-process models of attitudes and associative versus propositional modes of information processing.     

Gender moderates the relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem

Relative to men, women are more strongly socialized to trust their feelings and intuitions. We thus expected that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem would be stronger for women than for men. That is, if implicit self-esteem contains a large intuitive, experiential or affective component, then people who are in touch with their feelings and intuitions should be more likely to report explicit self-esteem scores that are congruent with their implicit self-esteem scores. Six studies supported this idea by showing that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem is indeed stronger for women than for men. This finding held in three different cultures and for two different measures of implicit self-esteem. We discuss the implications of this finding for debates regarding the nature and validity of implicit self-esteem.     

Types of high self-esteem and prejudice: how implicit self-esteem relates to ethnic discrimination among high explicit self-esteem individuals

There is increasing recognition that high self-esteem is heterogeneous. Recent research suggests that individuals who report having high self-esteem (i.e., have high explicit self-esteem) behave more defensively to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The current studies test whether individuals with high explicit self-esteem are more likely to discriminate ethnically, as a defensive technique, to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The results support this prediction. Among participants with high explicit self-esteem, all of whom were threatened by negative performance feedback, those with relatively low implicit self-esteem recommended a more severe punishment for a Native, but not a White, student who started a fist-fight. In Study 2, this pattern was not apparent for participants with relatively low explicit self-esteem.     

An implicit theory of self-esteem: The consequences of perceived self-esteem for romantic desirability

The provision of information appears to be an important property of self-esteem as evidenced by previous research concerning the status-tracking and status-signaling models of self-esteem. The present studies examine whether there is an implicit theory of self-esteem that leads individuals to assume targets with higher levels of self-esteem possess more desirable characteristics than those with lower levels of self-esteem. Across 6 studies, targets with ostensibly higher levels of self-esteem were generally rated as more attractive and as more desirable relationship partners than those with lower levels of self- esteem. It is important to note, however, that this general trend did not consistently emerge for female targets. Rather, female targets with high self-esteem were often evaluated less positively than those with more moderate levels of self-esteem. The present findings are discussed in the context of an extended informational model of self-esteem consisting of both the status-tracking and status-signaling properties of self-esteem.     

Implicit self-esteem compensation: automatic threat defense

Four experiments demonstrated implicit self-esteem compensation (ISEC) in response to threats involving gender identity (Experiment 1), implicit racism (Experiment 2), and social rejection (Experiments 3-4). Under conditions in which people might be expected to suffer a blow to self-worth, they instead showed high scores on 2 implicit self-esteem measures. There was no comparable effect on explicit self-esteem. However, ISEC was eliminated following self-affirmation (Experiment 3). Furthermore, threat manipulations increased automatic intergroup bias, but ISEC mediated these relationships (Experiments 2-3). Thus, a process that serves as damage control for the self may have negative social consequences. Finally, pretest anxiety mediated the relationship between threat and ISEC (Experiment 3), whereas ISEC negatively predicted anxiety among high-threat participants (Experiment 4), suggesting that ISEC may function to regulate anxiety. The implications of these findings for automatic emotion regulation, intergroup bias, and implicit self-esteem measures are discussed.