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What's in a name: implicit self-esteem and the automatic self.
S L Koole1, A Dijksterhuis, A van Knippenberg
1Department of Social Psychology, Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|April 24, 2001
Summary
Implicit self-esteem, often positive, influences automatic self-evaluations. These automatic processes, like name letter bias, occur without conscious thought and are linked to self-reported feelings.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Implicit self-esteem refers to unconscious positive or negative evaluations of the self.
- The automatic self encompasses cognitive and affective processes that operate outside conscious awareness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between implicit self-esteem and automatic self-evaluative processes.
- To determine the conditions under which implicit and explicit self-evaluations converge.
Main Methods:
- Four studies utilized the name letter evaluation task to assess implicit self-esteem.
- Experimental manipulations included inducing deliberative responding, rapid responding, and cognitive load.
- Self-report measures of self-esteem were also employed.
Main Results:
- A consistent positive bias in name letter evaluations confirmed generally positive implicit self-esteem.
- This name letter bias demonstrated temporal stability.
- Both name letter and birth date biases were correlated and could be inhibited under deliberative conditions.
- Implicit and explicit self-evaluations aligned under conditions of rapid responding or cognitive load.
Conclusions:
- Implicit self-esteem phenomena are driven by automatic self-evaluations.
- Conscious reflection and deliberative processing can inhibit these automatic self-evaluations.
- The findings support a dual-process model of self-evaluation, distinguishing automatic from controlled processes.