The “me” I claim to be: Cultural self-construal elicits self-presentational goal pursuit.

Abstract

In 12 studies, respondents with an independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal showed an increased tendency and readiness to present themselves as skillful and capable and a decreased tendency and readiness to present themselves as socially sensitive and appropriate. This emerged in the form of differential scores on direct measures of self-presentation-self-deceptive enhancement and impression management (Study 1), differential social sensitivity in a gift-giving scenario (Study 2), differential performance on questions assessing general knowledge (Studies 5-6) and etiquette (Studies 7-8), and different choices between tests purportedly measuring one's self-reliance versus social-appropriateness (Studies 9A and 9D). These relationships were observed when participants focused on their own self-presentational concerns but disappeared when participants focused on others' outcomes (Study 3) or when they had a prior opportunity to satisfy their goals via self-affirmation (Studies 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9B, 9D). Finally, self-construal effects were eliminated or reversed when participants were led to doubt their ability to achieve their self-presentational goals (Study 9C).

The influence of self-construal and co-consumption others on consumer complaining behavior

“…This "desirable identity" motive fits well into a service encounter where people can be observed by others. Lalwani and Shavitt (2009) further demonstrated how the dominant self-construal determined individuals' desirable identity that they want to present to others. For individuals with a dominant independent self-construal, they aim to present a unique, self-reliant, and skillful self image (Markus and Kitayama, 1991).…”

The Social Context of Temporal Sequences: Why First Impressions Shape Shared Experiences

“…The study was a 2 (joint vs. solo context prime) x simultaneously with shared verbal instructions, allowing them to potentially perceive that the study was co-experienced. To manipulate social context, participants completed Gardner et al's (1999) pronoun identification task on their computer, which past research has demonstrated results in differences in feelings of independence versus interdependence without corresponding differences in mood (Lalwani and Shavitt 2009;Krishna et al 2008;Mandel 2003). This short task involved reading a descriptive paragraph about a trip to a city and counting the number of pronouns contained therein.…”

How do we Optimize Message Matching Interventions? Identifying Matching Thresholds, and Simultaneously Matching to Multiple Characteristics

“…Generally, previous research has found that highly promotion-focused individuals respond more favorably to gain-framed messages (messages emphasizing the benefits of compliance with a behavioral recommendation), whereas highly prevention-focused individuals respond more favorably to loss-framed messages (messages emphasizing the costs associated with failure to comply with a recommendation; Cesario, Corker, & Jelinek, 2013). For self-construal, messages containing interdependence-related appeals have been found to be more persuasive for individuals with a more interdependent self-construal, whereas messages containing independence-related appeals are more persuasive for individuals with a more independent self-construal (Lalwani & Shavitt, 2009;Gardner, Gabriel, & Lee, 1999). Given the past success of studies matching to these characteristics, they are good candidates to examine the benefits of matching messages to two characteristics simultaneously.…”