Suppressing unwanted traits causes people to project them onto others, relieving their own discomfort
Evidence
Smart and Wegner (1999) demonstrated that participants who attempted to conceal stigmas were more likely to project their stigmas onto other people than those who did not attempt to conceal them. Women with eating disorders were interviewed, and some of them were asked to play the role of a person without an eating disorder. Participants in this condition were subsequently more likely than others to suspect that the interviewer had an eating disorder. In other words, having to hide or suppress aspects of themselves caused eating disordered participants to project those traits. Finally, to investigate whether projection can actually serve to distance individuals from threatening traits, Schimel, Greenberg, and Martens (2003) examined the consequences of projection for the accessibility of the projected traits. They found that individuals who had been told they had “repressed hostility” (an undesirable trait) showed decreased accessibility of this trait if given the opportunity to project it onto others. Specifically, when completing a series of word fragments, they were less likely to think of anger-related words. In addition, they rated themselves as less hostile than participants who had not been given an opportunity to project. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2358 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
When individuals confront evidence indicating they may not be the type of people they want to be, they might attempt to suppress thoughts of that evidence. But research by Wegner and colleagues (e.g., Wegner, 1992) indicates that actively trying to keep a thought out of awareness can backfire; suppression of a thought can ironically increase the accessibility of that thought. The frequency with which unwanted thoughts are activated causes them to become chronically accessible (Higgins, 1989) and to therefore dominate people’s perceptions of others, resulting in projection. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2355 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
- XREF: connects to: Projection converts taboo inner impulses into perceived external enemies — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 152; Civilized subjects project their own repressed mimetic impulses onto others as repellent remnants. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1426; Fear-driven insecurity fuels self-enhancement that exacerbates prejudice. (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Suppressing a stigmatized trait causes people to project it onto others.
#corroborates(0.97) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2358 - Suppressing unwanted thoughts ironically increases their accessibility and causes projection onto others.
#corroborates(0.93) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2355