Excellent paper, full paper here. Abstract:
"People gravitate toward people, places, and things that resemble the self. We refer to this tendency as implicit egotism, and we suggest that it reflects an un- conscious process that is grounded in people’s favorable self-associations. We review recent archival and experi- mental research that supports this position, highlighting evidence that rules out alternate explanations and dis- tinguishes implicit egotism from closely related ideas such as mere exposure. Taken together, the evidence suggests that implicit egotism is an implicit judgmental con- sequence of people’s positive self-associations. We conclude by identifying promising areas for future research."
To rule out alternate explanation:
"Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. With a little inspiration and a great deal of per- spiration, researchers who rely on archival research methods can go a long way toward ruling out alternate explanations for a particular effect. But as Edison’s contemporary, the methodol- ogist R.A. Fisher, might have put it, neither inspiration nor perspiration is a match for randomization. The researcher who wishes to rule out numerous alternate explanations for a phe- nomenon, while gaining insights into its underlying mechan- isms, must occasionally conduct experiments. In our research on implicit egotism and interpersonal attraction (Jones et al., 2004), we have done exactly that.
In one experiment, we introduced participants to a bogus interaction partner whose arbitrarily assigned experimental code number (e.g., 02-28) either did or did not happen to re- semble their own birthday number. Participants were more at- tracted to the stranger when his or her code number resembled their own birthday number. This study suggests that implicit egotism is not merely a corollary of the principle that people are attracted to others who are similar to them. After all, partici- pants did not think that their interaction partner actually shared their birthday. In a second experiment, we found that implicit egotism is most likely to emerge under conditions of self-con- cept threat (i.e., when people have been forced to think about their personal weaknesses). Men who had just experienced a mild self-concept threat (by writing about their personal flaws as a potential dating partner) were especially attracted to a woman in a ‘‘Yahoo personals’’ ad when her screen name happened to contain the first few letters of their surname (e.g., Eric Pelham would prefer STACEY_PEL to STACEY_SMI). Together with past research suggesting that self-concept threats temporarily increase people’s positive associations to the self, this study suggests that implicit egotism is grounded in self-evaluation (Beggan, 1992; Jones et al., 2002)."
"People gravitate toward people, places, and things that resemble the self. We refer to this tendency as implicit egotism, and we suggest that it reflects an un- conscious process that is grounded in people’s favorable self-associations. We review recent archival and experi- mental research that supports this position, highlighting evidence that rules out alternate explanations and dis- tinguishes implicit egotism from closely related ideas such as mere exposure. Taken together, the evidence suggests that implicit egotism is an implicit judgmental con- sequence of people’s positive self-associations. We conclude by identifying promising areas for future research."
To rule out alternate explanation:
"Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. With a little inspiration and a great deal of per- spiration, researchers who rely on archival research methods can go a long way toward ruling out alternate explanations for a particular effect. But as Edison’s contemporary, the methodol- ogist R.A. Fisher, might have put it, neither inspiration nor perspiration is a match for randomization. The researcher who wishes to rule out numerous alternate explanations for a phe- nomenon, while gaining insights into its underlying mechan- isms, must occasionally conduct experiments. In our research on implicit egotism and interpersonal attraction (Jones et al., 2004), we have done exactly that.
In one experiment, we introduced participants to a bogus interaction partner whose arbitrarily assigned experimental code number (e.g., 02-28) either did or did not happen to re- semble their own birthday number. Participants were more at- tracted to the stranger when his or her code number resembled their own birthday number. This study suggests that implicit egotism is not merely a corollary of the principle that people are attracted to others who are similar to them. After all, partici- pants did not think that their interaction partner actually shared their birthday. In a second experiment, we found that implicit egotism is most likely to emerge under conditions of self-con- cept threat (i.e., when people have been forced to think about their personal weaknesses). Men who had just experienced a mild self-concept threat (by writing about their personal flaws as a potential dating partner) were especially attracted to a woman in a ‘‘Yahoo personals’’ ad when her screen name happened to contain the first few letters of their surname (e.g., Eric Pelham would prefer STACEY_PEL to STACEY_SMI). Together with past research suggesting that self-concept threats temporarily increase people’s positive associations to the self, this study suggests that implicit egotism is grounded in self-evaluation (Beggan, 1992; Jones et al., 2002)."
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