Implicit Attitudes toward the Self Over Time in Chinese Undergraduates

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Cultural Psychology

Background:

• Explicit attitudes of Chinese individuals toward their past, present, and future selves follow a pattern: past = present < future.
• Implicit attitudes toward temporal selves, particularly in Chinese populations, remain under-researched.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the implicit subjective temporal trajectory (STT) of Chinese undergraduates.
• To compare implicit self-appraisals across past, present, and future selves in a Chinese cultural context.

Main Methods:

• Two studies were conducted using implicit association measures.
• Study 1 employed a Go/No-go association task.
• Study 2 utilized an implicit association test (IAT).

Main Results:

• Implicit STT revealed that the future self was perceived as identical to the present self (present = future).
• Participants implicitly evaluated their present self more positively than their past self (past < present).
• The overall implicit STT pattern was inclining-flat: past < present = future.

Conclusions:

• Implicit self-appraisals among Chinese undergraduates differ from their explicit attitudes.
• Findings suggest cultural variations in temporal self-appraisals, with an implicit past < present = future pattern observed.
• The study highlights the importance of distinguishing between explicit and implicit measures in understanding self-perception across time.