Premium
Different selves, different values: Effects of self‐construals on value activation and use
Author(s) -
Verplanken Bas,
Trafimow David,
Khusid Irina K.,
Holland Rob W.,
Steentjes Gabi M.
Publication year - 2009
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/ejsp.587
Subject(s) - collectivism , psychology , priming (agriculture) , social psychology , self construal , individualism , construals , construal level theory , cognition , negative priming , value (mathematics) , selective attention , interdependence , botany , germination , neuroscience , machine learning , political science , computer science , law , biology
Abstract Three experiments demonstrated structural properties and dynamic effects of self‐construal on the processing and use of values. In Study 1, it was found that self‐focus during encoding caused spontaneous cognitive clustering of individualistic versus relational values. Study 2 demonstrated that self‐construal affected the implicit weight of a value‐related attribute in a multi‐attribute choice task. In Study 3, behavioral intentions were better predicted by personal values than social norms when the personal self was primed, whereas social norms predicted better when the collective self was primed. The effects of manipulated self‐construal were mimicked when comparing participants with an individualistic versus collectivistic cultural background. No interaction was found between priming and cultural background. Taken together, the studies demonstrated that different domains of the self are associated with different values, which may instigate different cognitive and behavioral processes when activated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.