The Mirror and I: When private opinions are in conflict with public norms

Wiekens, Carina; Stapel, Diederik A.

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2008.02.005

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…"I buy some bread"). Priming of self-related personal pronouns has been successfully used as a method to induce self-awareness in previous research (Wiekens & Stapel, 2008). Participants in the control conditions received 25 neutral scrambled sentences in which no self-relevant pro-verbs were present (e.g.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting self-control failure: Overcoming ego depletion by increasing self-awareness

Alberts

Martijn

Vries

2011

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

112

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a b s t r a c tAccording to the limited strength model (Muraven, Tice & Baumeister, 1998), exerting self-control causes ego depletion: a depletion of cognitive resources resulting in poorer performance on later self-control tasks. Previous studies have demonstrated a positive effect of self-awareness on self-control performance. The present study examined whether the occurrence of ego depletion can be circumvented by increasing selfawareness. Initially depleted participants who received a neutral prime exhibited the classic ego depletion pattern: their performance on a subsequent physical self-control task decreased significantly. In contrast, no decrease in performance was observed for depleted participants who were exposed to a self-awareness prime. The latter group performed equally well compared to low depleted participants.Knowing what is best for you does not always lead to behavior that is congruent with this knowledge. Terms such as "weakness of will" and "lack of self-control" have been used by modern philosophers and psychologists to explain this phenomenon (Elster, 1979). Failure of self-control is often accompanied by negative consequences: widespread problems like obesitas, drug addiction and violence reflect people's inability to control their food intake, cravings and aggressive impulses. According to the limited strength model, failure of selfcontrol emerges as a consequence of limited resources (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000;Muraven, Tice, & Baumeister, 1998). Resources used for an initial self-control attempt are no longer available for later attempts, resulting in decreased self-control performance. This phenomenon is labeled ego depletion and has been demonstrated in a wide range of studies. These studies have used different manipulations of self-control (e.g. thought suppression, emotion regulation, impulse control, deliberate decision making and memory tasks) and have indeed shown that when people repeatedly exert self-control within a relatively short period of time, performance on a subsequent act of self-control is likely to decrease (see for an overview, Hagger, Wood, Stiff, & Chatzisarantis, 2010;Schmeichel & Baumeister, 2004).An important question is whether regulatory failure due to ego depletion can be circumvented. The present article will address this question by investigating the potential of attentional processes to overcome ego depletion. More specifically, the present contribution addresses the impact of self-focused attention or self-awareness on regulatory performance and ego depletion. Self-awarenessPrevious research has consistently demonstrated a unidirectional link between self-focused attention and self-control. For instance, a study by Beaman, Klentz, Diener, and Svanum (1979) showed that children were less likely to eat more than the allowed amount of candy when their self-awareness was raised by seating them in front of a mirror. Macrae, Bodenhausen, and Milne (1998) found that a heightened self-focus enhanced spontaneous suppression of social stereotypes. Highly self-aw...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting self-control failure: Overcoming ego depletion by increasing self-awareness

Alberts

Martijn

Vries

2011

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

112

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“…The negative association between cues that evoke the self and dishonesty is robust and well established (Bandura, 1986(Bandura, , 1990(Bandura, , 1999Bryan et al, 2013;Diener & Wallbom, 1976;Dunning, 2005;Duval & Wicklund, 1972;Haley & Fessler, 2005;Rigdon et al, 2009;Shu et al, 2012;Wiekens & Stapel, 2008). Situational cues that evoke the self-concept can initiate a comparison between the self and a socially desirable behavior (Duval & Wicklund, 1972).…”

Section: Self-presence and Individual Dishonestymentioning

confidence: 99%

What's in a name? The toll e-signatures take on individual honesty

Chou

2015

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…This involved exposing participants to a closed circuit television image of themselves. However, in addition to eliciting internal focus, exposing individuals to their own image activates public self‐awareness and by extension, an awareness of relevant injunctive norms (Wiekens & Stapel, 2008). Thus, subsequent behaviour may have been motivated by an antilittering injunctive norm (i.e., societal prescriptions) rather than a moral norm (i.e., one's own conviction).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Principles and popularity: The interplay of moral norms and descriptive norms in the context of volunteerism

Smith¹,

Masser²

2012

British J Social Psychol

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Can a moral norm be manipulated and if so, how does a manipulated moral norm interact with a descriptive norm to impact on behavioural intentions? The present research addressed these questions in three studies. Study 1a and 1b demonstrated the validity of a manipulation designed to activate a moral norm for volunteer activity. In Study 2, activating a moral norm for volunteering strengthened intentions to volunteer and inhibited intentions to conform to a descriptive norm. Conceptual and applied implications of activating a moral norm are discussed.

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The Mirror and I: When private opinions are in conflict with public norms

Cited by 22 publications

References 19 publications

Fighting self-control failure: Overcoming ego depletion by increasing self-awareness

Fighting self-control failure: Overcoming ego depletion by increasing self-awareness

What's in a name? The toll e-signatures take on individual honesty

Principles and popularity: The interplay of moral norms and descriptive norms in the context of volunteerism

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