I Think, Therefore I Change: Reflection Leads to Self-Concept Change After Discrepant Feedback

Why do people change their self-perceptions (i.e., self-concept) after receiving external, self-discrepant information? While recent theorizing posits that reflection is a prerequisite for such change, empirical evidence supporting this is sparse. Here, we investigated the role of reflection in self-concept change after feedback in six studies. In Studies 1a-e (total N = 2,422), participants received feedback regarding a self-concept domain and we assessed reflection as well as self-concept change. Across studies, the amount of reflection was positively correlated with self-concept change. In Study 2 (N = 1,149), we experimentally varied whether participants were encouraged to reflect on the feedback and their self-concept or prevented from doing so via a distractor task. We found that self-concept change was larger after inducing (vs. suppressing) reflection. Exploratory analyses showed that the association between reflection and self-concept change was more pronounced for negative than for positive feedback in Studies 1a-e, but not Study 2.