Implicit egotism
Implicit egotism is the hypothesis that humans have an unconscious preference for things they associate with themselves. In a 2002 paper,[1] psychologists Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones argue that people have a basic desire to feel good about themselves and behave according to that desire. These automatic positive associations would influence feelings about almost anything associated with the self. Based on the mere ownership effect, which states that people like things more if they own them, and the name-letter effect, which states that people like the letters of their name more than other letters,[2] the authors theorised that people would develop an affection for objects and concepts that are chronically associated with the self, such as their name. They called this putative form of unconscious attraction 'implicit egotism'.[3]
Uri Simonsohn subsequently suggested that implicit egotism only applies to cases where people are nearly indifferent between options, and therefore it would not apply to major decisions such as career choices. Low-stakes decisions such as choosing a charity would show an effect.[4] Raymond Smeets theorised that if implicit egotism stems from a positive evaluation of the self, then people with low self-esteem would not gravitate towards choices associated with the self, but possibly away from them (a laboratory experiment was cited in support of this hypothesis).[5]
Implicit egotism is used by some researchers as an explanation for putative psychological effects such as
In a paper published in 2011, reporting a reanalysis of data from previous population studies, Simonsohn concluded that despite the existence of apparent correlations "all [the] existing evidence appears to be spurious." He criticized Pelham and his colleagues for not considering
See also
Notes
- ^ Pelham, Mirenberg & Jones 2002.
- ^ Nuttin 1985.
- ^ a b Pelham, Mirenberg & Jones 2002, p. 479.
- ^ Simonsohn 2011, p. 46.
- ^ Smeets 2009, p. 11.
- ^ Simonsohn 2011, p. 23.
- ^ Pelham & Carvallo 2015, p. 692.
References
- Nuttin, Jozef M. (1985). "Narcissism beyond Gestalt and awareness:The name-letter effect". European Journal of Social Psychology. 15 (3): 353–361. .
- Pelham, B; Mirenberg, Matthew C; Jones, John T (2002). "Why Susie sells seashells by the seashore:Implicit egotism and major life decisions". PMID 11999918.
- Pelham, Brett; Carvallo, Mauricio (2015). "When Tex and Tess Carpenter Build Houses in Texas:Moderators of Implicit Egotism". Self and Identity. 4 (6): 692–723. S2CID 145572523.
- Simonsohn, Uri (2011). "Spurious? Name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 101 (1): 1–24. S2CID 207744109.
- Smeets, Raymond (2009). On the Preference for Self-related Entities:The Role of Positive Self-associations in Implicit Egotism Effects. Nijmegen, the Netherlands: UB Nijmegen. ISBN 978-90-90-24290-3.