Experimentally induced thought suppression turns anyone into a projector

Evidence

Importantly, thought suppression seemed to underlie this effect; instructing participants to suppress thoughts of unfavorable traits that they were said to have (suggested to them by means of false feedback) had the effect of essentially turning all of them into repressors, causing them to project more (Study 5). Participants seemed to be unaware of the extent to which they were projecting; indeed, when their attention was called to their own unwanted traits, they seemed to bend over backwards not to let those traits color their perceptions of others (Study 4). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2356

The Newman et al. (1997) model’s validity was demonstrated in a series of six studies. Repressors, who (Study 1) spend as little time as possible thinking about their own threatening traits and (Study 2 and Study 6) insist that they do not possess those traits (in spite of contrary evidence), are more likely than nonrepressors to interpret ambiguous behaviors of others in terms of those very traits (i.e., were more likely to project; Studies 3 and 4). This occurred despite the fact that repressors were actually somewhat charitable in their attributions concerning traits that were not threatening. Importantly, thought suppression seemed to underlie this effect; instructing participants to suppress thoughts of unfavorable traits that they were said to have (suggested to them by means of false feedback) had the effect of essentially turning all of them into repressors, causing them to project more (Study 5). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2356

Categorization

• CANDY: Fun twist: tell someone they’re selfish via false feedback and they’ll start seeing everyone else as selfish — without realizing they’re doing it.
• SEED: Could extend the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ style of piece: the psychology of accusation as confession — ‘methinks thou dost protest too much’ given a falsifiable mechanism.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2356