Subtle and even subliminal environmental primes shift people’s self-perceived traits.
Evidence
Research examining influences on individuals’ self-views assumes that the traits, goals, and evaluations one associates with oneself can shift in response to subtle influences in the environment (e.g., Dijksterhuis, Chartrand, & Aarts, 2007; Mussweiler, 2007; Wheeler, DeMarree, & Petty, 2007). Research on social comparison has demonstrated that even subliminal social comparison standards related to intelligence can produce assimilative (Stapel & Blanton, 2004) and contrastive (Mussweiler, Ruter, & Epstude, 2004) shifts in individuals’ self-perceived intelligence. Similarly, the mere activation of self-irrelevant social categories, such as the African American stereotype among European American participants, can produce shifts in individuals’ self-conceptions (e.g., increased self-perceived aggressiveness; see DeMarree & Loersch, 2009; DeMarree, Wheeler, & Petty, 2005; see also Dijksterhuis et al., 1998; Schubert & Häfner, 2003). — Brandon Randolph-Seng, Darcy A. Reich, and Kenneth G. DeMarree, On the Nonconscious Antecedents of…, 11
Categorization
- XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s question: subliminal social-comparison standards shifting self-perceived intelligence suggests identification processes that need not involve conscious threat perception, parallels the ‘conscious threat’ question under test. — connects to: Salient self-categories make people perceive themselves as interchangeable group exemplars. — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations:…, 53; Perceived personal permanence is borrowed from stable surroundings, not from the for-itself — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1283; Empathic people are more susceptible to subliminal cues and influence — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 945 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Empathic people are more susceptible to subliminal cues and influence
#expands(0.88) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 945 - Shifting metaphors can shift thought and behavior toward sustainability.
#exemplifies(0.80) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 502 - Perceived personal permanence is borrowed from stable surroundings, not from the for-itself
#expands(0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1283 - Repeated exposure to others’ judgments inevitably shapes a person’s character
#expands(0.75) - Individual identity forms dialogically through a constitutive outside, not autonomously.
#expands(0.73) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 363 - Salient self-categories make people perceive themselves as interchangeable group exemplars.
#qualifies(0.72) — Nurit Shnabel and Johannes Ullrich, Identity Needs in Intergroup Relations, 53