33 research outputs found
Deflecting Stereotype Threat Through Downward Comparison: When Comparison with Immigrants Boosts the Performance of Stigmatized Native Students
Two experiments examined the effect of comparison with immigrants on the intellectual performance of stigmatized native students (i.e., women and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds). It was predicted that such a comparison may boost the test performance of both groups of students rather than comparison with their counterparts who are not stigmatized. In line with this hypothesis, we found that female European students (Study 1) performed better on a math test when they were led to compare with a female immigrant rather than with another female European student. Study 2 replicated this finding in regard to the performance of native students with low socioeconomic status on a general intelligence test. Results are discussed in terms of stereotype susceptibility predicaments and their implications for native-immigrant performance gap
Evidence that Social Comparison with the Thin Ideal Affects Implicit Self-Evaluation
Research on body image suggests that social comparison with the thin ideal has a number of negative consequences for women. To date, however, little is known on how social comparison with the thin ideal affects the accessibility of positive thoughts and feelings about the self (implicit self-liking). To examine this issue, one hundred and twenty-six young women from two countries, Canada and France, were exposed either to fourteen photographs of the thin ideal or to the same images airbrushed to make the models look slightly larger. They next completed a lexical decision task with positive self-related transitive verbs as stimuli (e.g., âTo like myselfâ). As expected, women exposed to the thin-ideal models took longer to correctly identify self-liking verbs compared to women who were exposed to slightly larger models. No effects were found on other positive verbs, and there were no effects of the country. The results suggest that social comparison with the thin ideal reduces implicit self-liking among young women
Automatic social comparison: Cognitive load facilitates an increase in negative thought accessibility after thin ideal exposure among women
Women are routinely exposed to images of extremely slim female bodies (the thin ideal) in advertisements, even if they do not necessarily pay much attention to these images. We hypothesized that paradoxically, it is precisely in such conditions of low attention that the impact of the social comparison with the thin ideal might be the most pronounced. To test this prediction, one hundred and seventy-three young female participants were exposed to images of the thin ideal or of womenâs fashion accessories. They were allocated to either a condition of high (memorizing 10 digits) or low cognitive load (memorizing 4 digits). The main dependent measure was implicit: mean recognition latency of negative words, relative to neutral words, as assessed by a lexical decision task. The results showed that thin-ideal exposure did not affect negative word accessibility under low cognitive load but that it increased it under high cognitive load. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that social comparison with the thin ideal is an automatic process, and contribute to explain why some strategies to prevent negative effects of thin-ideal exposure are inefficient
The mirror effect: Self-awareness alone increases suicide thought accessibility
International audienceAccording to objective self-awareness theory, when individuals are in a state of self-awareness, they tend to compare themselves to their standards. Self-to-standard comparison often yields unfavorable results and can be assimilated to a failure, activating an escape motivation. Building on recent research on the link between failure and suicide thought accessibility, the present experiment tested the hypothesis that mirror exposure alone provokes an increase in suicide thought accessibility. Participants were exposed to their mirror reflection (or not) while completing a lexical decision task with suicide-related words. Self-to-standard discrepancy salience was manipulated by asking participants to list actual and ideal traits before versus after the lexical decision task. As predicted, mirror-exposed participants recognized suicide-related words quicker than those unexposed to their mirror image. Self-to-standard discrepancy salience did not moderate this effect. Discussion focuses on the role of the motivation to escape self-awareness in the availability of suicide-related ideas
When self-destructive thoughts flash through the mind: Failure to meet standards affects the accessibility of suicide-related thoughts
International audienceWhen individuals realize that they fail to attain important standards or expectations, they may be motivated to escape the self, which could lead thoughts of suicide to become more accessible. Six studies examined this hypothesis, mainly derived from escape theory (Baumeister, 1990). The results indicated that whenever individuals realize that they fail to attain an important standard, they experience increased accessibility of suicide-related thoughts (Studies 1â6). In line with the idea that such effects reflect motivations to escape from negative self-awareness, they were especially pronounced when associated with high levels of self-consciousness and escapist motivations (Study 1) and with a large discrepancy between self and standards (Studies 2â4). Moreover, failure to attain standards increased suicide-thought accessibility along with the desire for an altered state of consciousness (Study 5). Finally, increases in suicide-thought accessibility after failure were associated with simultaneous increases in accessibility of general concepts related to escape (Study 6). Implications of these findings for escape and terror management theories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved
Single exposure to disclaimers on airbrushed thin ideal images increases negative thought accessibility
International audienceDisclaimers on airbrushed thin ideal images can attract attention to the thin ideal standard promoted by the advertisements, which can be damaging rather than helpful. In this study, 48 female college students were exposed to a thin ideal image including a disclaimer, a neutral sentence, or nothing. Two weeks and two months after this, they were again exposed to the same image but with no accompanying text in any of the conditions. Negative thought accessibility was assessed three times, after each exposure to the thin-ideal image, using reaction time measures. Participants randomly assigned to the disclaimer condition systematically showed greater accessibility of negative thoughts than those in the other two conditions, irrespective of the time of measurement. These results suggest that disclaimers on airbrushed images may have some counter-productive effects by accentuating the problems that they precisely aim to address
(Eye-)tracking the escape from the self: guilt proneness moderates the effect of failure on self-avoidance
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The defeated self: Evidence that entrapment moderates first name priming effects on failure-thought accessibility
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Self-esteem and suicide rates in 55 Nations
International audienceUsing recent data from the International Sexuality Description Project (ISDP), we examined whether national differences in selfâesteem across 55 nations are reflected in suicide rates. Results indicate that suicide is especially common in nations with relatively low levels of selfâesteem. This relation is consistent across sex lines, age of suicide and independent from several other relevant factors such as economic affluence, transition, individualism, subjective wellâbeing, and neuroticism. These findings provide support for the predictive validity of selfâesteem scores as assessed in the ISDP survey. They also contribute to a growing body of research documenting negative consequences associated with low selfâesteem. Possible implications for suicide prevention strategies are discussed