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Assimilation and contrast in social comparisons as a consequence of self‐construal activation
Author(s) -
Kühnen Ulrich,
Hannover Bettina
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/1099-0992(200011/12)30:6<799::aid-ejsp16>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - psychology , priming (agriculture) , social psychology , interdependence , contrast (vision) , similarity (geometry) , cognition , cognitive psychology , construal level theory , artificial intelligence , botany , germination , neuroscience , political science , law , image (mathematics) , biology , computer science
We extended existing research about self‐construal activation to the study of social comparisons, specifically to self–other similarity ratings. Independent self‐knowledge substantiates the notion of dissimilarity, whereas interdependent self‐knowledge implies similarity with others. Therefore, perceived self–other similarity was predicted to decrease after independent and increase after interdependent self‐knowledge priming. However, we expected such assimilation effects to occur only if the priming was subtle, but contrast effects if it was overt. In order to test this hypothesis, we developed a scrambled sentences test for priming the respective self‐knowledge. The unscrambled sentences described the self either in terms of independence or interdependence. The subtlety of this priming was manipulated by having participants write down either the full sentences (overt priming) or only the remaining word in each item (subtle priming). Results confirmed the predictions. Underlying cognitive processes of the effects are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.