Lecture 6 - Self Affirmation Process

Fein & Spencer (1977)

Self-Affirmation and prejudice: self-affirmed participants or didn't. Then participants evaluated a Jewish or Catholic candidate. In the area of the participants there was negative attitudes towards Jews. The self-affirmed group there was no difference in rating the Italian and Jewish group If you affirm people can reduce prejudice towards the outgroup The non-self affirmed group give considerably more positive personality evaluations to the Italian candidate

Links between dissonance theory and self-affirmation theory

Dissonance involves cognition or behavior that violates that self-concept, and self-affirmation theory is dissonance that involves some type of threat to people's self-integrity

How self affirmation theory helps process information

Threats of integrity may promote defensiveness in order to maintain a positive self-image BUT self-affirmation manipulations (to boost their self-regard) make it easier to process self-threatening information You can get people to accept more information, change their attitudes, and intentions an behavior IF you self-affirm them before!

Self:

an ego or persona, a person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action

Steele (1975)

experimenters induced dissonance to participants saying most are not cooperative in community projects, and later these participants had gains in compliance in helping the food co-operative. Inducing dissonance helps people correct that dissonance. May be the people's sense of their own goodness and worth (self-integrity) induces this level of compliance, because the group that was told people don't drive carefully also compiled in the cooperative call

Self-Affirmation Theory

how people are motivated to reaffirm a sense of personal integrity (self) when their integrity is threatened. A general threat of self-integrity/self-regard that drives people to maintain a sense of sense regard. Threatening information or affirmation has to be relevant to the individual. Still not totally sure what they mechanisms are involved.

Steele (1988)

people are motivated to maintain a sense of self-integrity of positive regard (self-affirmation) and threats to integrity may promote defensiveness. People who smoke are maybe not good at controlling some actions, and smoking will be seen as a foolish in others eyes and threats to their self image is what triggers their defensiveness

Sherman, Nelson & Steele (2000)

same study with caffeine and breast cancer, same results except they did find that affirmed caffeine drinkers also did want to reduce their consumption

Reed & Aspinwall, (1998)

self affirmation reduces the defensive reactions to people getting health advice that they don't want to hear. Link between caffeine consumption and breast cancer (which they made up for the study) The self affirmed candidates who were high consumers of caffeine rated the information as more convincing. Back-fire effect: They were more accepting, but had less intentions to reduce caffeine consumption and they don't know why Boosting self-regard with affirmation made them more open to information. People will process information in a more systematic and less biased way

Jessop, Simmonds & Sparks (2009)

self-affirmation - sunscreen use with three different conditions of affirmation. All get a health promotion leaflet and whether they accept a free example of sunscreen, a measurable objective behavior. Positive traits affirmation did significantly better than the control group, but not significantly better than others.

Sivanathan & Pettit (2010)

self-affirmation consumption (of goods) signals status and is a possible way of self-affirm. Hypothesis: low egos are more likely to consume higher status goods to self affirm themselves. Participants told they were highest/lowest 10% of the students, and measured how much they were willing to pay for a high status product. People who are given negative feedback they are willing to pay much more for the picture. They gain back self-affirmation by consuming high-status good Also confirmed in other studies.

Sparks, Jessop, Chapman & Holmes (2010)

self-affirmation with environmental regulation and recycling behavior. Threatening information: landfill sites are v dangerous for environments. Lower recyclers who were affirmed expressed a significant improved intention to increase the level of recycling