Three studies utilized priming techniques to examine whether self-presentations can be activated without conscious awareness. The results across all experiments consistently demonstrated nonconscious self-presentation effects, in that people were unaware that their self-presentations were triggered automatically and that their self-presentations were comparable to participants who were explicitly instructed to self-present. The findings are novel because they are the first to demonstrate that self-presentations can be triggered without conscious awareness in a manner similar to self-presentations that are strategically selected. In addition, the results help undermine the common misconception that self-presentation typically involves conscious deliberation, pretense, or outright deception.
AartsH.GollwitzerP. M.HassinR. R. (2004). Goal contagion: Perceiving is for doing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 23-37.
2.
AndersenS. M.ChenS. (2002). The relational self: An interpersonal social-cognitive theory. Psychological Review, 109, 619-645.
3.
Ashton-JamesC.van BaarenR. B.ChartrandT. L.DecetyJ.KarremansJ. (2007). Mimicry and me: The impact of mimicry on self-construal. Social Cognition, 25, 518-535.
4.
BaldwinM. W. (1992). Relational schemas and the processing of social information. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 461-484.
5.
BarghJ. A.ChartrandT. L. (2000). The mind in the middle: A practical guide to priming and automaticity research. In ReisH. T.JuddC. M. (Eds.), Research methods in social psychology (pp. 253-285). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
6.
BarghJ.A.FergusonM.J. (2000). Beyond behaviorism: The automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 925-945.
7.
BarghJ. A.GollwitzerP. M.Lee-ChaiA.BarndollarK.TrotschelR. (2001). The automated will: Nonconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1014-1027.
8.
BaumeisterR. F. (1982). A self-presentational view of social phenomena. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 3-26.
9.
BaumeisterR. F.HuttonD. G.TiceD. M. (1989). Cognitive processes during deliberate self-presentation: How self-presenters alter and misinterpret the behavior of their interaction partners. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 59-78.
10.
ChartrandT. L.BarghJ. A. (1996). Automatic activation of impression formation and memorization goals: Nonconscious goal priming reproduces effects of explicit task instructions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 464-478.
11.
ChartrandT. L.MadduxW.LakinJ. (2005). Beyond the perception-behavior link: The ubiquitous utility and motivational moderators of nonconscious mimicry. In HassinR.UlemanJ.BarghJ. A. (Eds.), The new unconscious (pp. 334-361). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
12.
ChengC. M.ChartrandT. L. (2003). Self-monitoring without awareness: Using mimicry as a nonconscious affiliation strategy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1170-1179.
13.
CrowneD. P.MarloweD. (1960). A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349-354.
14.
CustersR.AartsH. (2005). Positive affect as implicit motivator: On nonconscious operation of behavioral goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 129-142.
15.
DePauloB. M. (1992). Nonverbal behavior and self-presentation. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 203-243.
16.
DijksterhuisA.ChartrandT. L.AartsH. (2007). Effects of priming and perception on social behavior and goal pursuit. In BarghJ. A. (Ed.), Social psychology and the unconscious: The automaticity of higher mental processes (pp. 51-132). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
17.
FitzsimmonsG. M.BarghJ. A. (2003). Thinking of you: Nonconscious pursuit of interpersonal goals associated with relationship partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 148-163.
18.
GergenK. J.WishnovB. (1965). Others’ self-evaluations and interaction anticipation as determinants of self-preservation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, 348-358.
19.
HoganR. (1982). A socioanalytic theory of personality. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 29, 55-89. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
20.
JonesE. E.RhodewaltF.BerglasS.SkeltonJ. A. (1981). Effects of strategic self-presentation on subsequent self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 407-421.
21.
LakinJ. L.ChartrandT. L. (2003). Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological Science, 14, 334-339.
22.
LearyM. R. (1995). Self-presentation: Impression management and interpersonal behavior. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.
23.
LearyM. R.TchividjianL. R.KraxbergerB. E. (1994). Self-presentation can be hazardous to your health: Impression management and health risk. Health Psychology, 13, 461-470.
24.
LoerschC.AartsH.PayneB. K.JefferisV. E. (2008). The influence of social groups on goal contagion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1555-1558.
25.
PaulhusD. L. (1993). Bypassing the will: The automatization of affirmations. In WegnerD. M.PennebakerJ. W. (Eds.), Handbook of mental control (pp. 573-587). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
26.
PaulhusD. L.LevittK. (1987). Desirable responding triggered by affect: Automatic egotism?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 245-259.
27.
PontariB. A.SchlenkerB. R. (2000). The influence of cognitive load on self-presentation: Can cognitive busyness help as well as harm social performance?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 1092-1108.
28.
RosenbergM. (1965). Society and the adolescent child. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
29.
SchlenkerB. R. (2003). Self-presentation. In LearyM. R.TangneyJ. P. (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 492-518). New York, NY: Guilford.
30.
SchlenkerB. R.WowraS. A.JohnsonR. M.MillerM. L. (2008). The impact of imagined audiences on self-appraisals. Personal Relationships, 15, 247-260.
31.
SmeestersD.WheelerS. C.KayA. C. (2009). The role of interpersonal perceptions in the prime-to-behavior pathway. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 395-414.
32.
SmeestersD.YzerbytV.CorneilleO.WarlopL. (2009). When do primes prime? The moderating role of the self-concept in individuals’ susceptibility to priming effects on social behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 211-216.
33.
TiceD. M.ButlerJ. L.MuravenM. B.StillwellA. W. (1995). When modesty prevails: Differential favorability of self-presentation to friends and strangers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1120-1138.
34.
TylerJ. M. (2009). Compensatory self-presentation in upward comparison situations. Human Communication Research, 35, 511-533.
35.
TylerJ. M.FeldmanR. S. (2005). Deflecting threat to one’s image: Dissembling personal information as a self-presentation strategy. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 27, 71-78.
36.
VohsK. D.BaumeisterR. F.CiaroccoN. J. (2005). Self-regulation and self-presentation: Regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and effortful self-presentation depletes regulatory resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 632-657.
37.
WatsonD.ClarkL. A.TellegenA. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.
