Kenneth G. DeMarree

Understanding the Role of the Self in Prime-to-Behavior Effects: The Active-Self Account

In this article, the authors review research showing the different roles that the self-concept can play in affecting prime-to-behavior effects. As an organizing framework, an Active-Self account of stereotype, trait, and exemplar prime-to-behavior effects is presented. According to this view, such primes can influence peoples behavior by creating changes in the active self-concept, either by invoking a biased subset of chronic self-content or by introducing new material into the active self-concept. The authors show how involvement of the active self-concept can increase, decrease, or reverse the effects of primes and describe how individual differences in responsiveness of the self to change and usage of the self in guiding behavior (e.g., self-monitoring) can moderate prime-to-behavior effects. The Active-Self account is proposed as an integrative framework that explains how the self is involved in prime-to-behavior effects and helps predict how changes in the self determine which motivational and behavioral representations will guide behavior.

Leader Emergence: The Case of the Narcissistic Leader:

These studies investigate whether individuals with high narcissism scores would be more likely to emerge as leaders during leaderless group discussions. The authors hypothesized that narcissists would emerge as group leaders. In three studies, participants completed personality questionnaires and engaged in four-person leaderless group discussions. Results from all three studies reveal a link between narcissism and leader emergence. Studies 1 and 2 further reveal that the power dimension of narcissism predicted reported leader emergence while controlling for sex, self-esteem, and the Big Five personality traits. Study 3 demonstrates an association between narcissism and expert ratings of leader emergence in a group of executives. The implications of the propensity of narcissists to emerge as leaders are discussed.

Priming a new identity: self-monitoring moderates the effects of nonself primes on self-judgments and behavior.

When a construct is primed, people often act in construct-consistent ways. Several accounts for this effect have been offered, including ideomotor theory and a social functional perspective. The authors tested an additional perspective, the Active-Self account, whereby primes can temporarily alter self-perceptions. In Study 1, non-African American participants reported feeling more aggressive on an implicit measure following an African American prime. In Study 2, participants reported feeling luckier on an implicit measure following a number 7 (vs. 13) prime. In both studies, these effects were obtained only for low self-monitors, who are more likely to change self-conceptions in response to diagnostic self-information and to use their internal states in guiding behavior. Study 3 showed that low self-monitors also show larger behavioral effects of primes.

Need for Cognition Can Magnify or Attenuate Priming Effects in Social Judgment

This article hypothesizes that the individual-difference variable, need for cognition (NFC), can have opposite implications for priming effects, depending on prime blatancy. Subtle primes are argued to be more effective for high- versus low-NFC individuals. This is because for high-NFC individuals, (a) constructs are generally easier to activate, (b) their higher amount of thought offers more opportunity for an activated construct to bias judgment, and (c) their thoughtfully formed judgments are more likely to affect behavior. However, because high-NFC individuals are adept at identifying and correcting for bias, with blatant primes the activated construct should be less likely to exert its default influence. Furthermore, with blatant primes, low-NFC individuals may achieve sufficient activation for primes to affect judgment. Across three studies, it is shown that as NFC increases, the magnitude of priming effects increases with a subtle prime but decreases with a blatant prime.

The Effect of Self-Affirmation in Nonthreatening Persuasion Domains: Timing Affects the Process

Most research on self-affirmation and persuasion has argued that self-affirmation buffers the self against the threat posed by a persuasive message; thus, it increases the likelihood that participants will respond to the message favorably. Little research, in contrast, has looked at the effects of self-affirmation on persuasive messages that are not threatening to the self. This research examines mechanisms that can operate under these conditions. Consistent with the idea that self-affirmation affects confidence, the article shows that self-affirmation can decrease information processing when induced prior to message reception (Experiment 1) and can increase the use of self-generated thoughts in response to a persuasive message when induced after message reception (Experiment 2). In addition, Experiment 3 manipulates the timing of self-affirmation to replicate both effects and Experiment 4 provides direct evidence for the impact of self-affirmation on confidence.

From Primed Construct to Motivated Behavior: Validation Processes in Goal Pursuit

Past research has found that primes can automatically initiate unconscious goal striving. Recent models of priming have suggested that this effect can be moderated by validation processes. According to a goal-validation perspective, primes should cause changes in one’s motivational state to the extent people have confidence in the prime-related mental content. Across three experiments, we provided the first direct empirical evidence for this goal-validation account. Using a variety of goal priming manipulations (cooperation vs. competition, achievement, and self-improvement vs. saving money) and validity inductions (power, ease, and writing about confidence), we demonstrated that the impact of goal primes on behavior occurs to a greater extent when conditions foster confidence (vs. doubt) in mental contents. Indeed, when conditions foster doubt, goal priming effects are eliminated or counter to the implications of the prime. The implications of these findings for research on goal priming and validation processes are discussed.

Examining the interrelationships between social anxiety, smoking to cope, and cigarette craving

Smokers with symptoms of social anxiety often report smoking as a way to cope with negative affect. These individuals have lower success rates when attempting cessation compared with the general population. However, there is a paucity of research examining the role of social anxiety in nicotine dependence. The present study explored the relationships between symptoms of social anxiety, smoking to cope with these symptoms during social situations (STC), and cigarette craving. Thirty-eight participants completed measures of social anxiety and STC at baseline. Cigarette craving was subsequently assessed pre and post exposure to smoking-related images during periods of nicotine satiation and deprivation. Regression analyses revealed that greater symptoms of social anxiety predicted the frequency of STC behaviors and the number of cigarettes participants thought they would need in order to feel more comfortable in social situations. Symptoms of social anxiety and several behaviors associated with STC (e.g., avoiding social situations in which smoking is not permitted) predicted increases in craving during nicotine deprivation, but not satiation. These findings suggest that symptoms of social anxiety and STC behaviors may play a role in the maintenance of smoking behaviors. Further, targeting symptoms of social anxiety within the context of smoking cessation treatment may be particularly helpful and may improve the rates of smoking cessation among individuals with symptoms of social anxiety.

Self-Ambivalence and Resistance to Subtle Self-Change Attempts

Recent research has demonstrated the malleability of self-views to subtle situational influence but has not uncovered features of the self-concept representation that make it susceptible to such change. Using research on attitude ambivalence as a foundation, the current article predicted that the self would be most likely to respond to a subtle change induction when the targeted self-beliefs were objectively ambivalent (e.g., possessed both positive and negative features). Using self-esteem conditioning (Experiment 1) and outgroup stereotype priming (Experiment 2), it was found that people were more susceptible to subtle change inductions as objective self-ambivalence increased. Notably, the consistency between dominant self-views (positive or negative) and the change induction did not influence these results. These effects held for objective ambivalence, but not subjective ambivalence, and only when the objective ambivalence measure was relevant to the change induction. Mechanisms of the observed moderation and the implications of self-ambivalence for understanding self-change are discussed.

Self-Esteem Accessibility as Attitude Strength: On the Durability and Impactfulness of Accessible Self-Esteem

The present research examines the accessibility of one’s self-esteem as a predictor of the “strength” (durability and impactfulness) of that self-esteem. Based on attitude accessibility research, the authors predicted that accessibility of self-esteem (i.e., a self-attitude) would be positively related to self-esteem’s ability to resist change and guide information processing. In Study 1, accessibility of self-esteem was positively related to resistance to change in a paradigm where participants listed either positive or negative self-attributes. Self-esteem was also associated with biases in judgments of ambiguous personality feedback (Study 2) and in explanatory style and future event predictions (Study 3), but did so to a greater extent as self-esteem accessibility increased. In addition, these patterns were obtained after controlling for other variables, including general reaction time, evaluative extremity, self-concept clarity, and self-esteem certainty. Results are discussed in relation to past literature, self-strength, and applied implications.

Attitude Certainty and Conflict Style Divergent Effects of Correctness and Clarity

Little research has examined the properties of people’s attitudes that predict how they will respond to conflict with others whose opinions differ. We propose that one aspect of attitude certainty—attitude correctness, or the perception that one’s attitude is the “right” attitude to have—will predict more competitive conflict styles. This hypothesis was tested across five data sets comprising four studies. In Studies 1a and 1b, perceptions of attitude correctness (but not another form of attitude certainty, attitude clarity) predicted participants’ tendencies to send competitive messages to an ostensible partner who held the opposite opinion. In Studies 2 to 4, manipulations of attitude correctness, but not attitude clarity (Study 3), also increased competitiveness in conflict, and perceived correctness mediated the effect of the correctness manipulation on conflict style (Study 4). The present research has implications for both the predictors of conflict style and the consequences of different forms of attitude certainty.