Research on implicit stereotypes has raised important questions about an individual's ability to moderate and control stereotypic responses. With few strategies shown to be effective in moderating implicit effects, the present research investigates a new strategy based on focused mental imagery. Across 5 experiments, participants who engaged in counterstereotypic mental imagery produced substantially weaker implicit stereotypes compared with participants who engaged in neutral, stereotypic, or no mental imagery. This reduction was demonstrated with a variety of measures, eliminating explanations based on response suppression or shifts in response criterion. Instead, the results suggest that implicit stereotypes are malleable, and that controlled processes, such as mental imagery, may influence the stereotyping process at its early as well as later stages.
Based on undergraduates' self-reports of mate preferences for various traits and self-perceptions of their own levels on those traits, Buston and Emlen [Buston PM, Emlen ST (2003) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:8805-8810] concluded that modern human mate choices do not reflect predictions of tradeoffs from evolutionary theory but instead follow a ''likes-attract'' pattern, where people choose mates who match their self-perceptions. However, reported preferences need not correspond to actual mate choices, which are more relevant from an evolutionary perspective. In a study of 46 adults participating in a speed-dating event, we were largely able to replicate Buston and Emlen's self-report results in a pre-event questionnaire, but we found that the stated preferences did not predict actual choices made during the speed-dates. Instead, men chose women based on their physical attractiveness, whereas women, who were generally much more discriminating than men, chose men whose overall desirability as a mate matched the women's self-perceived physical attractiveness. Unlike the cognitive processes that Buston and Emlen inferred from selfreports, this pattern of results from actual mate choices is very much in line with the evolutionary predictions of parental investment theory.assortative mating ͉ decision making ͉ evolutionary psychology ͉ sexual selection ͉ speed-dating W hat characteristics are preferable in a human mate? The answer depends, as ever in behavioral research, on how one asks the question. When asked in a normative mannerwhat characteristics should men and women seek in a mate?-the question can be addressed from the theoretical framework of evolutionary biology. Starting with the assumption that the underlying function of mate choice is reproductive success, evolutionary psychologists have proposed that men should seek young, fertile, faithful women, and women should seek highstatus, resourceful, committed men, and both sexes should bargain for the traits they desire in the other sex by offering the desirable traits that they themselves possess (1, 2). When people are asked what traits they prefer in a mate, however, the answer to this question becomes less clear. On the one hand, the traits that people around the world say they prefer match the evolutionary predictions for making adaptive mate choices (3-5). On the other hand, Buston and Emlen (6) found that people do not indicate that they want to exchange, for instance, male status for female attractiveness (a hypothesis, based on an evolutionary mating market framework, that they call ''potentials-attract'') but rather seek someone just as high-status (or low) and attractive (or not) as themselves (a form of active positive assortative mating they call ''likes-attract''). Why do the theoretical mate choice predictions and stated mate preferences clash in this way? In this work, by comparing the attributes that a group of mate-seeking individuals said they prefer in a mate with what they actually chose in potential partners, we show how the conflicting re...
Objective We propose that the experience of state authenticity—the subjective sense of being one's true self—ought to be considered separately from trait authenticity as well as from prescriptions regarding what should make people feel authentic. Methods In Study 1 (N = 104), online participants rated the frequency of and motivation for experiences of authenticity and inauthenticity. Studies 2 (N = 268) and 3 (N = 93) asked (local or online, respectively) participants to describe their experiences of authenticity or inauthenticity. Participants in Studies 1 and 2 also completed measures of trait authenticity, and participants in Study 3 rated their experience with respect to several phenomenological dimensions. Results Study 1 demonstrated that people are motivated to experience state authenticity and avoid inauthenticity and that such experiences are common, regardless of one's degree of trait authenticity. Coding of Study 2's narratives identified the emotions accompanying and needs fulfilled in each state. Trait authenticity generally did not qualify the nature of (in)authentic experiences. Study 3 corroborated the results of Study 2 and further revealed positive mood and nostalgia as consequences of reflecting on experiences of authenticity. Conclusions We discuss implications of these findings for conceptualizations of authenticity and the self.
We examined the components and situational correlates of state authenticity to clarify the construct's meaning and improve understanding of authenticity's attainment. In Study 1, we used the day reconstruction method (participants assessed real‐life episodes from ‘yesterday’) and in Study 2 a smartphone app (participants assessed real‐life moments taking place ‘just now’) to obtain situation‐level ratings of participants' sense of living authentically, self‐alienation, acceptance of external influence, mood, anxiety, energy, ideal‐self overlap, self‐consciousness, self‐esteem, flow, needs satisfaction, and motivation to be ‘real’. Both studies demonstrated that state authentic living does not require rejecting external influence and, further, accepting external influence is not necessarily associated with state self‐alienation. In fact, situational acceptance of external influence was more often related to an increased, rather than decreased, sense of authenticity. Both studies also found state authentic living to be associated with greater, and state self‐alienation with lesser: positive mood, energy, relaxation, ideal‐self overlap, self‐esteem, flow, and motivation for realness. Study 2 further revealed that situations prioritizing satisfaction of meaning/purpose in life were associated with increased authentic living and situations prioritizing pleasure/interest satisfaction were associated with decreased self‐alienation. State authenticity is best characterized by two related yet independent components: authentic living and (absence of) self‐alienation. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology
State authenticity is the sense that one is currently in alignment with one’s true or real self. We discuss state authenticity as seen by independent raters, describe its phenomenology, outline its triggers, consider its well-being and behavioral implications, and sketch out a cross-disciplinary research agenda.
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