"Me" means more than "good": stimuli's self-relevance matters more than valence in shaping evaluative learning via the self

ABSTRACTStimuli that relate to the self tend to be better liked. The Self-Referencing (SR) task is a paradigm whereby one target categorised through the same action as self-stimuli (i.e. possessive pronouns) is preferred over an alternative target categorised through the same action as other-stimuli. Past studies on the SR showed that valence could not fully account for the observed effect. Here we explored self-relevance as a possible explanation. Across four studies (N = 567), participants selected self-relevant and self-irrelevant adjectives to be used as source stimuli in a Personal-SR task. In that task, the two classes of stimuli were paired with two fictitious brands. We measured automatic (IAT) and self-reported preferences, and identification with the brands. Experiment 1 showed that the brand paired with positive self-relevant adjectives became more positive than the one paired with positive self-irrelevant adjectives. Experiment 2 confirmed this pattern with negative adjectives, and Experiment 3 ruled out the effect of a self-serving bias in the adjectives selection. Experiment 4 showed that the brand related to negative self-relevant adjectives was preferred over the brand related to positive self-irrelevant adjectives. We discussed the implications of our results and the potential mechanisms that might explain self-driven preferences.

Is the association of deliberate self-harm with emotional relief stable or dependent on emotional context?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Despite strong support for the role of emotional relief in deliberate self-harm (DSH), no research has examined the impact of emotional distress on the strength of the DSH-relief association. Thus, it remains unclear whether the association of DSH with emotional relief is stable across emotional contexts or context-dependent. This study aimed to examine if the implicit DSH-relief association is stronger in the context of emotional distress (relative to a neutral emotional context).

METHODS

Young adult women with (n = 60) and without (n = 60) a history of recent recurrent DSH were randomly assigned to complete a novel version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) assessing the DSH-relief association at baseline (following an initial neutral emotion induction) and again following either a neutral or negative (i.e., social rejection) emotion induction.

RESULTS

Consistent with hypotheses, the DSH-relief association was stronger among women with recent recurrent DSH (vs. those without DSH) at baseline. Contrary to hypotheses, however, whereas the DSH-relief association remained stable following both the neutral and negative emotion inductions among participants with DSH, it became stronger across both conditions for participants without DSH.

LIMITATIONS

The use of a community sample of young adult women may limit generalizability to other relevant populations (e.g., clinical populations, young men, adolescents). Additionally, the negative emotion induction may not have been powerful enough to affect the strength of the learned DSH-relief association among individuals with a repeated history of DSH.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that the repeated use of DSH to bring about emotional relief may engender associations of DSH with relief that are relatively insensitive to emotional context.

It is not just memory: propositional thinking influences performance on the autobiographical IAT

INTRODUCTION

The autobiographical Implicit Association Test (aIAT) is a variant of the Implicit Association Test reportedly capable of detecting an individual's concealed autobiographical event with very high accuracy. A previous attempt to utilize this measurement technique for the identification of cocaine users rendered an alarming rate of false positives. In this study, we aimed to explore the potential reasons behind the measurement's inaccuracy.

METHODS

Two versions of the cocaine aIAT were devised with different category labels (descriptive 'guilty/innocent' and self-referenced 'as if you were/were not'). Forty-one cocaine abstinent participants (43.9% male; mean age = 28.17 ± 7.36) were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. Self-declared cocaine abstinence was confirmed for the 12-month period preceding data collection through hair analysis. Participants were also administered bespoke implicit and explicit cocaine user attitude measures, the self-esteem IAT and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.

RESULTS

The category labels which elicited self-referenced knowledge showed low accuracy (19%) compared to the 65% of the 'guilty/innocent' labels proposed by original authors. The self-referenced aIAT version significantly correlated with the self-concept measures. The aIAT outcomes were independent from attitudes toward cocaine users.

CONCLUSIONS

Category labels play an influential role in determining the test's accuracy, demonstrating that participants' propositional knowledge and self-concept are involved during test performance. The aIAT does not appear to tap directly into an individual's implicit memory when relevant memory is not available. Although the test cannot be recommended for detecting drug use, further research should investigate underlying mechanisms and other potentials of the technique.