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Memory as a Self‐Protective Mechanism
Author(s) -
Sedikides Constantine,
Green Jeffrey D.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
social and personality psychology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.699
H-Index - 53
ISSN - 1751-9004
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00220.x
Subject(s) - phenomenon , neglect , psychology , recall , mechanism (biology) , cognitive psychology , social psychology , autobiographical memory , epistemology , philosophy , psychiatry
The autobiographical memory literature has established that people remember poorly unpleasant, relative to pleasant, life events. We complemented this literature with a theoretical model – the mnemic neglect model – and an experimental paradigm that exerts tight control over the to‐be‐remembered material. Participants recall poorly self‐threatening feedback compared to self‐affirming or other‐relevant feedback – a phenomenon we labeled mnemic neglect . The phenomenon is motivational: it is in the service of self‐protection. The phenomenon is also flexible. Participants can switch from self‐protection (e.g. avoiding negative feedback) to an alternative goal (e.g. striving for feedback with improvement potential), when circumstances call for it such as when the feedback is provided by a close other rather than a stranger. Finally, self‐threatening feedback may be forgotten, but it is not lost: the mnemic neglect effect is not obtained in recognition recall.