Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
Published on: July 8, 2025
Affirmed yet unaware: exploring the role of awareness in the process of self-affirmation
David K Sherman1, Geoffrey L Cohen, Leif D Nelson
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660, USA. david.sherman@psych.ucsb.edu
Abstract:
Three studies investigated whether self-affirmation can proceed without awareness, whether people are aware of the influence of experimental self-affirmations, and whether such awareness facilitates or undermines the self-affirmation process. The authors found that self-affirmation effects could proceed without awareness, as implicit self-affirming primes (utilizing sentence-unscrambling procedures) produced standard self-affirmation effects (Studies 1 and 3). People were generally unaware of self-affirmation's influence, and self-reported awareness was associated with decreased impact of the affirmation (Studies 1 and 2). Finally, affirmation effects were attenuated when people learned that self-affirmation was designed to boost self-esteem (Study 2) or told of a potential link between self-affirmation and evaluations of threatening information (Study 3). Together, these studies suggest not only that affirmation processes can proceed without awareness but also that increased awareness of the affirmation may diminish its impact.
More Related Videos
08:01Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
Published on: October 28, 2020
05:48The Adventures of Fundi Intervention Based on the Cognitive and Emotional Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Patients
Published on: June 12, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Self-Awareness and Its Effects
Subconsciousness and No Awareness
An illustrative example of subconscious processing is its role in problem-solving. Often, individuals...
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Strategies of Self-Presentation II: Self-Verification
Understanding Self-Concept