I Approach Therefore I am? Isolating Behaviour-Specific Effects on Self-Evaluation

Research suggests that approach and avoidance-decreasing or increasing self-stimulus distance, respectively-influence self-evaluation. However, this conclusion typically stems from examining approach and avoidance as a pair, while no empirical research has satisfactorily isolated the unique causal contribution of each behaviour. To address this gap, three experiments (N _Total = 1929) used an adapted Manikin Task incorporating a proper control condition (i.e., no distance change) to first isolate the effect of approach, relying on both reaction time and self-report measures. Furthermore, by incorporating avoidance in the last experiment, this task allowed us to oppose model-based theoretical predictions. Results did not reveal any behaviour-specific effects. Nevertheless, the proposed methodology opens new avenues for investigating the behavioural determinants of self-construal.