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Objectives: Black Americans use identity-based self-protective strategies to maintain their explicit self-esteem after a threat to their intelligence. This effect is consistent with the associative-propositional evaluation (APE) model, which suggests that self-protective strategies operate during a propositional process that results in no change in explicit self-esteem. However, the APE model also suggests that implicit self-esteem may be sensitive to an intelligence threat because it increases the accessibility of automatically activated evaluations about Black Americans, namely the stereotype that their group is unintelligent. These hypotheses are tested across two experiments. Method: Black American participants across both experiments (Experiment 1: N = 57; 40 females, Mage = 21.60; Experiment 2: N = 79; 64 females, Mage = 24.86) completed an intelligence test, then were randomly assigned to receive either negative feedback about their performance or no-feedback. Participants then completed measures of implicit and explicit self-esteem. Participants in Experiment 2 also completed a measure of subjective identity centrality. Results: In support of the hypotheses, Black American participants across both experiments who received negative performance feedback on an intelligence test exhibited lower implicit self-esteem compared to those who did not receive feedback. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that this effect emerged only among strongly identified Black American participants. Finally, and consistent with past research, explicit self-esteem was unaffected by negative performance feedback among all participants. Conclusions: This research demonstrates the boundary conditions of Black Americans' adoption of identity-based self-protective strategies to protect their implicit versus explicit self-esteem following an intelligence threat. Public Significance Statement: Black Americans often experience systemic and interpersonal biases stemming from the stereotype that their group is unintelligent. In response to such experiences, Black Americans have developed and adopt self-protective strategies to maintain their explicit self-esteem. The current research suggests that there is a need to identify and develop additional self-protective strategies that protect and maintain implicit self-esteem when Black Americans experience bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the aggressive tendency in college students with different types of high self-esteem in the context of self-threat. Methods: A total of 1 000 college students were selected, and the Self-Esteem Scale (SES) and the Implicit Association Test (IAT) were used to screen out the fragile high self-esteem group (the subjects with the first 27% of SES score and the last 27% of IAT score) and the secure high self-esteem group (the subjects with the first 27% of SES score and the first 27% of IAT score) with 64 persons each. The self-threat situation was manipulated through virtual intelligence test, so that both groups received different degrees of self-threat priming. The explicit aggressive behavior and implicit aggressive behavior were evaluated with the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) and Implicit Aggressive Experiment (IAE) respectively. Results: In the absence of threat, there was no significant difference in the scores of AQ and IAE between the fragile high self-esteem group and the safe high self-esteem group (Ps＞ 0. 05). In the situation of self-threat, the scores of AQ and IAE were higher in the fragile high self-esteem group than in the secure high self-esteem group (Ps ＜0. 05). Conclusion: Selfthreat could modulate the relationship between aggressive behaviors of different types of high self-esteem college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-affirmation—reflecting on a source of global self-integrity outside of the threatened domain—can mitigate self-threat in education, health, relationships, and more. Whether people recognize these benefits is unknown. Inspired by the metamotivational approach, we examined people's beliefs about the benefits of self-affirmation and whether individual differences in these beliefs predict how people cope with self-threat. The current research revealed that people recognize that self-affirmation is selectively helpful for self-threat situations compared with other negative situations. However, people on average did not distinguish between self-affirmation and alternative strategies for coping with self-threat. Importantly, individual differences in these beliefs predicted coping decisions: Those who recognized the benefits of self-affirmation were more likely to choose to self-affirm rather than engage in an alternative strategy following an experience of self-threat. We discuss implications for self-affirmation theory and developing interventions to promote adaptive responses to self-threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Consumption of animals entails disregarding the pain of sentient beings, and acknowledging this can threaten an individual's image of oneself as a moral person. Also, abstaining from meat in a meat-eating culture can threaten an individual's valued group identity. Previous research on inter-group relations suggests that self-affirmation, affirmation of personally or collectively important values, can help individuals alleviate self-threats since it enhances one's global self-image and decreases threat perceptions. Methods: We tested for potential effects of self-affirmation on openness toward reducing meat consumption in an experimental study. Participants (N = 277) were randomized into an individual affirmation, group affirmation, or a control condition. Individual affirmation participants ranked a list of values and then wrote a short paragraph about their first-ranked value. Group affirmation participants did a similar task, focusing on the values of their ethnic group, while participants in the control condition had an unrelated task of ranking their color preferences. Participants then read a persuasive message presenting health risks related to meat consumption and the health benefits of reducing meat. Finally, they indicated their openness toward reducing meat consumption and acceptability of plant-based alternatives and lab-grown meat. Results and Discussion: Results show that affirmed participants expressed more readiness to reconsider their meat consumption habits, reduced perceptions of vegetarianism as a threat to the local culture, and more positive perceptions of the idea of lab-grown meat. However, self-esteem and frequency of meat consumption pose important limitations to the experimental effects. We discuss the findings from the perspective of self-and collective identity threats and the potential of selfaffirmations to create a more open debate about animal product consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative emotions arising from self-threat are ubiquitous and harmful. We propose that the experience of awe awakens the small-self, which in turn alleviates these negative emotions. We examine our theoretical hypotheses in four studies employing various self-threatening situations, using distinct awe manipulations and involving participants from different countries. The participants experiencing awe reported lower levels of negative emotions arising from self-threat compared with those in the neutral (Study 1) and happiness conditions (Study 2). Moreover, we verified that the small-self mediates the alleviating effect of awe on negative emotions through measuring (Study 3) and manipulating the small-self (Study 4). Beyond a set of practical implications for promoting mental health and well-being, our research also provides novel insights into awe, self-appraisal, and self-threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although personal control is a fundamental human need, research has not yet systematically examined how it functions in consumer and marketplace settings. This article reviews and integrates the existing research on the topic to provide a greater understanding of how personal control and consumer behavior shape and inform one another. We first integrate multiple streams of research to discuss the conceptualization and antecedents of personal control. We then propose an organizing framework that identifies two ways in which feelings of low control shape consumer behavior: through motivating consumers to look for a sense of order and structure in their consumption environments and through motivating consumers to use consumption activities to reestablish feelings of control. We close by highlighting several future research directions for advancing the current understanding of how personal control and marketing relate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionConsumption of animals entails disregarding the pain of sentient beings, and acknowledging this can threaten an individual’s image of oneself as a moral person. Also, abstaining from meat in a meat-eating culture can threaten an individual’s valued group identity. Previous research on inter-group relations suggests that self-affirmation, affirmation of personally or collectively important values, can help individuals alleviate self-threats since it enhances one’s global self-image and decreases threat perceptions.MethodsWe tested for potential effects of self-affirmation on openness toward reducing meat consumption in an experimental study. Participants (N = 277) were randomized into an individual affirmation, group affirmation, or a control condition. Individual affirmation participants ranked a list of values and then wrote a short paragraph about their first-ranked value. Group affirmation participants did a similar task, focusing on the values of their ethnic group, while participants in the control condition had an unrelated task of ranking their color preferences. Participants then read a persuasive message presenting health risks related to meat consumption and the health benefits of reducing meat. Finally, they indicated their openness toward reducing meat consumption and acceptability of plant-based alternatives and lab-grown meat.Results and DiscussionResults show that affirmed participants expressed more readiness to reconsider their meat consumption habits, reduced perceptions of vegetarianism as a threat to the local culture, and more positive perceptions of the idea of lab-grown meat. However, self-esteem and frequency of meat consumption pose important limitations to the experimental effects. We discuss the findings from the perspective of self-and collective identity threats and the potential of self-affirmations to create a more open debate about animal product consumption.

Consumers who experience a psychological threat may compensate by acquiring a product that directly boosts the threatened aspect of their self-concept (i.e., within-domain compensation), or they may compensate by acquiring a product that boosts an unrelated aspect of their self-concept (i.e., across-domain compensation). The current research investigates how self-verification motives influence consumers' preference between these two compensation strategies. In two studies, participants with a self-verification motive displayed an increased preference for within- (vs. across-) domain compensatory products following a self-threat. Underlying this effect, those with a self-verification motive reported a greater desire for products that re-confirmed the threatened domain of their self-concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people experience threats to important aspects of their self-concept (e.g. power, intelligence, sociability), they often compensate by consuming products that symbolize success, mastery, or competence on the threatened self-domain (within-domain compensatory consumption). Our research examines whether such compensatory consumption is effective in repairing the self-concept. Across seven experiments, we show that whether compensatory consumption is effective depends on the extent to which the connection between the compensatory products and the threatened domains is made explicit. When the connections are made explicit (e.g. through product names and marketing slogans), self-repair is impeded, but when the connections are only implicit (product is inherently symbolic of self-threat domain), self-repair can be successful. We further show that these differential effects of product connection explicitness are mediated by rumination: explicit connections induce rumination about the self-threat, which undermines self-repair, whereas implicit connections cause no rumination, facilitating self-repair. Our research provides a reconciliation of conflicting findings on self-repair in previous research, and also shows that despite the differences in efficacy, consumers compensate regardless of whether product connections are implicit or explicit, which has implications for consumer well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the effect of current performance on the predicted wellbeing for future success and its mechanism. This empirical research consists of two experiments. In Study 1, the individual's predicted well-being of future performance in the tests was lower in good feedback condition compared with bad feedback condition. It means that individuals have a higher expectation of future success after an unimportant loss. Study 2 focused on the moderating role of self-threat situations and the mediating role of affect and self-esteem in the effect of current performance feedback on predicted well-being. The results showed that individuals who got bad feedback have a low predicted well-being of future success only in a high self-threatening condition. Selfthreat plays a moderating role between current performance and predicted well-being. The serial mediation role of affect and self-esteem in the negative effect of current performance on predicted well-being holds in high selfthreat situations. By specifying the behavioral consequences and analyzing the psychological process in high and low self-threat situations, this research expands the literature on development of appropriate cognitive theories and propose novel measures and practical implications of enhancing predicted well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University teachers and students are evaluated regularly on their performance, and when evaluations are lower than expected, the feedback may be threatening to the individual, potentially causing deviant behaviors including un-collegiality and poor performance. In this paper, we use the self-threat model of procedural justice to examine faculty responses to teaching evaluations (Study 1) and student responses to course grades (Study 2). The model proposes that group identification influences self-serving bias and self-threat, which then influences procedural justice, and helps explain why teachers and students sometimes criticize decision procedures considered fair by socially accepted standards. Results show full support of the model for faculty responses to evaluations and partial support for student responses to grades. Group identification mitigated self-threat and self-serving bias for the faculty sample but had no influence on the student sample. These findings overall suggest that it is important to reduce the level of self-threat to make negative feedback less threatening to both teachers and students. This may be done either directly via fostering group identification or indirectly by making sure that sensitive performance-based information is not shared to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both multiculturalism (which involves recognizing and appreciating differences) and racial/ethnic colorblindness (which can involve emphasizing similarities or individual characteristics) are intended to promote intergroup harmony. Nevertheless, these ideologies can backfire when salient. Although this work has sometimes been interpreted to suggest that dominant group members may perceive salient multiculturalism, and non-dominant group members may perceive salient colorblindness, as threatening, it is unclear what about these interethnic ideologies poses a threat and why. The present article draws upon theories of the self-concept to introduce a framework of M ulticulturalism and C olorblindness a s T hreats to the S elf. Specifically, it is proposed that multiculturalism (colorblindness) is potentially threatening to dominant (non-dominant) group members' collective, relational, and personal selves. Dispositional and contextual variables that may moderate perceptions of threat among members of dominant and non-dominant groups, alternative interethnic ideologies to multiculturalism and colorblindness, and potential future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Human memory is malleable by both social and motivational factors and holds information relevant to workplace decisions. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) describes a phenomenon where retrieval practice impairs subsequent memory for related (unpracticed) information. We report two RIF experiments. Chinese participants received a mild self-threat manipulation (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 1) before an ethnicity-RIF task that involved practicing negative traits of either in-group (Chinese) or an out-group (Japanese) target. After a subsequent memory test, participants selected their preferred applicant for employment. RIF scores correspond to forgetting of unpracticed positive traits of one target (Rp−) relative to the recall of practiced negative traits of the other target (Rp+). Enhanced forgetting of positive traits was found in both experiments for both targets. Across experiments, a significant target by threat interaction showed that target ethnicity modified RIF (an ethnicity-RIF effect). Inducing a self-protecting motivation enhanced RIF effects for the out-group (Japanese) target. In a subsequent employment decision, there was a strong bias to select the in-group target, with the confidence in these decisions being associated with RIF scores. This study suggests that rehearsing negative traits of minority applicants can affect metacognitive aspects of employment decisions, possibly by shaping the schemas available to the majority (in-group) employer. To disrupt systemic racism, recruitment practices should aim to offset a human motivation to protect one-self, when exposed to a relatively mild threat to self-esteem. Discussing the negative traits of minority applicants is a critical, and sensitive, aspect of decision-making that warrants careful practice. These data suggest that recruiting individuals should be reminded of their personal strengths in this context, not their vulnerabilities, to secure their decision-making for fairer recruitment practice.

Social exclusion can cause negative changes on human beings both in the physiological and psychological aspects. Although considerable efforts have been devoted to study its effects on consumption behavior, little attention has been paid to the consequence that social exclusion might have on consumer's color preference and the underlying mechanisms. Such social events can change individual's behavior. This work examines the influence of social exclusion on consumers' color preference as well as the moderation and mediation effects via three experiments: Experiment 1 studies the impacts of social exclusion on consumer color choice (warm color versus cold color). To further validate the robustness of the results, experiment 2 is designed by replicating the findings of experiment 1 in another product category and instructed the participants to choose products with different colors. Meanwhile, the mediation effect of self-threat is examined. In Experiment 3, the moderation effect of self-construal is investigated via a 2 (exclusion vs. inclusion) x 2 (independent vs. interdependent) x (warm color vs. cold color) between-subjects design. Our results indicate that social exclusion makes people prefer warm colors rather than cold colors. However, these effects would be mediated by self-threat, which could be further moderated by self-construal. The present study establishes the relationship between social exclusion and consumers' color preference, which is expected to provide guidance for companies to improve product design and promotion strategies to adapt to various contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to seek if self-affirming activities can be used to increase compliance with group-protective public health policies such as the mandate to wear face masks for the COVID-19 pandemic. Completing a self-affirmation has been shown to increase compliance with health advice when it is beneficial for the self (Sherman & Cohen, 2020). To determine if self-affirming activities, as described by Self-Affirmation theory, increases compliance to health advice that is beneficial for others, the present experiment (N = 106) asked university students to complete a self-affirmation or a control task, read a relevant article, and rate how often they would wear a mask in a variety of situations in a survey. Participants also rated their peers to test if the selfaffirmation would mitigate the difference between how people rate themselves and their peers. This study showed that the self-affirmation caused people to rate themselves and their peers' mask-wearing intentions higher in all situations except in their own homes where there was no change in rating between the two groups, p = .008. The self-affirmation manipulation had no interaction effect with the target of rating (self vs. peer) and so did not change how people rated themselves compared to others, p = .60. These results suggest that Self-Affirmation theory can be used to promote group-protective health advice and could potentially make public health campaigns more effective in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the formation of green development and lifestyle is an important, urgent and arduous development task. Actively promoting ecological civilization construction and cultivating ecological morality are important foundations for promoting the green transformation of lifestyle. How to stimulate ecological moral emotion and promote green consumption is of great significance to realize the harmonious development between man and nature. In this context, this paper takes environmental indebtedness as an example to explore the influence mechanism of environmental indebtedness on green purchase intention based on consumer preference theory. The empirical test results show that: environmental indebtedness can effectively improve green purchase intention; consumer preference plays a partial mediating role in the influence of environmental indebtedness on green purchase intention, and emotional preference plays a greater mediating role; open self-threat and private self-threat moderate the mediating effect of consumer preference to different degrees, and for consumers with high self-threat, the preference and purchase intention of green products generated by environmental indebtedness was lower than that of consumers with low self-threat. Therefore, to promote green consumption, attention should be paid to the ecological moral and emotional education of consumers, to cultivate consumers' cognitive and emotional preference for green products, to improve their income level or to reduce the price of green products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across five studies, we find that high-power distance belief (PDB) consumers (i.e., consumers who value social hierarchy) tend to show lower loyalty after being demoted in loyalty programs than low-PDB consumers (i.e., consumers who value equality). This occurs because while low-PDB consumers are only sensitive to the monetary losses associated with the demotion, high-PDB consumers are sensitive to both the monetary and psychological losses. More importantly, we find that when consumers receive the appropriate monetary (for low-PDB) or status-symbolic (for high-PDB) compensation, the negative effect of demotion is attenuated. Additionally, we find that proactive approaches are more effective in mitigating negative responses to demotion; accordingly, marketers should warn consumers of a prospective demotion and offer consumers help in maintaining their existing membership tier. Doing so results in a win-win situation where consumers avoid demotion and marketers achieve higher profits. The theoretical and practical implications of the research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that individuals engage in reactive consumption to address selfdiscrepancy and self-threat and that this consumption may either be symbolically related to the nature of the threat or occur in an unrelated domain. This research proposes a theory for self-worth restoration through the consumption of high-intensity sensory stimuli. Four studies demonstrate that not only do individuals facing selfthreat prefer high-intensity sensory consumption (HISC) but also that this consumption restores their self-worth. This propensity for HISC is negated after individuals are allowed to engage in additional self-affirmation tasks. The findings are documented in both the visual domain (as evidenced by a preference for more intense and saturated colors) and the auditory domain (as evidenced by a preference for louder audio levels). The consumption of high-intensity sensory stimuli elevates individuals' arousal levels, which in turn minimizes rumination on thoughts related to the threat and thus restores one's self-worth. The distractive nature of HISC and its subsequent impact on self-worth restoration is shown to operate regardless of the valence of the sensory consumption. Finally, the propensity for HISC is negated after individuals experience an arousal-elevating threat, providing additional support for the underlying process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative emotions arising from self-threat are ubiquitous and harmful. We propose that the experience of awe awakens the small-self, which in turn alleviates these negative emotions. We examine our theoretical hypotheses in four studies employing various self-threatening situations, using distinct awe manipulations and involving participants from different countries. The participants experiencing awe reported lower levels of negative emotions arising from self-threat compared with those in the neutral (Study 1) and happiness conditions (Study 2). Moreover, we verified that the small-self mediates the alleviating effect of awe on negative emotions through measuring (Study 3) and manipulating the small-self (Study 4). Beyond a set of practical implications for promoting mental health and well-being, our research also provides novel insights into awe, self-appraisal, and self-threat.

Human memory is malleable by both social and motivational factors and holds information relevant to workplace decisions. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) describes a phenomenon where retrieval practice impairs subsequent memory for related (unpracticed) information. We report two RIF experiments. Chinese participants received a mild self-threat manipulation (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 1) before an ethnicity-RIF task that involved practicing negative traits of either in-group (Chinese) or an out-group (Japanese) target. After a subsequent memory test, participants selected their preferred applicant for employment. RIF scores correspond to forgetting of unpracticed positive traits of one target (Rp−) relative to the recall of practiced negative traits of the other target (Rp+). Enhanced forgetting of positive traits was found in both experiments for both targets. Across experiments, a significant target by threat interaction showed that target ethnicity modified RIF (an ethnicity-RIF effect). Inducing a self-protecting motivation enhanced RIF effects for the out-group (Japanese) target. In a subsequent employment decision, there was a strong bias to select the in-group target, with the confidence in these decisions being associated with RIF scores. This study suggests that rehearsing negative traits of minority applicants can affect metacognitive aspects of employment decisions, possibly by shaping the schemas available to the majority (in-group) employer. To disrupt systemic racism, recruitment practices should aim to offset a human motivation to protect one-self, when exposed to a relatively mild threat to self-esteem. Discussing the negative traits of minority applicants is a critical, and sensitive, aspect of decision-making that warrants careful practice. These data suggest that recruiting individuals should be reminded of their personal strengths in this context, not their vulnerabilities, to secure their decision-making for fairer recruitment practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines, in the context of physical education (PE) classes, if having the opportunity to report disadvantages before performing a physical test could reduce students' self-reported level of fear of failure. Forty-six students (31 males, Mage = 14.2 years and 15 females, Mage = 12.5 years) from a middle school and a high school in France participated in the study. A repeated measures design (intra-individual) was used, such that the fear of failure was measured before and after students were given (week 1) or not given (week 2) the opportunity to report disadvantages that could impair their future performance. The main results indicated that when students had the opportunity to report disadvantages, their self-reported level of fear of failure declined before performing the physical test. Conversely, when they had no opportunity to report disadvantages, their self-reported level of fear of failure increased. Implications for educational psychologists and teachers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the mask model, narcissists portray a hard exterior, but possess a soft core. This presumed fragility has been typically operationalized as a discrepancy between explicit and implicit self-esteem, producing inconsistent findings. A reason for the inconclusiveness may be that narcissism has been tested in situ. We report an experiment (N=209) where narcissists manifested hypervigilance: faster reaction times to self-threatening stimuli when their fragility was subliminally exposed. However, given ampler time (235ms vs. 149ms), narcissists switched from defensiveness to self-regulation: equivalent reaction times to those of non-narcissists. This switch, being rapid and difficult to detect, may explain prior inconclusiveness. Despite transient intrapersonal turbulence in the face of self-threat, narcissists quickly regain their composure and re-establish their granite exterior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research in complaining behavior has focused on product or service failures in which the organization is responsible for the failure. In these cases, researchers have found that consumers feel better about the product failure after complaining about it. In contrast, the authors show that when consumers are to blame for product failure, complaining has a detrimental effect on consumer reactions to the product. In this context, self-threat from the product failure is shown to motivate defensive processing in both the content of complaints and the subsequent downstream product evaluations. The authors establish the role of self-threat in product failure in two ways: (1) by varying the intensity of the threat from product failure and (2) through mitigating negative outcomes through self-affirmation. The article concludes with discussion on how these findings can benefit companies and where this research could seed opportunities for subsequent investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We hypothesised that sense of home serves as a buffer against self‐threat. In three experiments, we induced sense of home (vs. control) and assessed its buffering function to threat. Sense of home augmented openness to stereotype threat information (Experiment 1), increased performance on a spatial rotation ability test after stereotype threat (Experiment 2), and reduced the desire for high‐status products following mortality salience (Experiment 3). This "proof of concept" research establishes the buffering potential of sense of home and raises theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the premise that individuals are inclined to self-enhance, in temporal self-appraisal (TSA) theory it is suggested that people can motivationally reconstruct subjective distances from their past self to serve that goal. However, given the mixed evidence found in an East Asian cultural context (i.e., Japan), it is important to test the cultural applicability of TSA in a different East Asian culture. Thus we tested the TSA of a Chinese sample, focusing on past-self distance reconstruction. The results supported the prediction suggested in TSA theory, in that participants tended to feel farther away from negative (vs. positive) past experiences. Further, this effect was greater when people were primed with a self-threat (i.e., self-uncertainty salience). These patterns were found independently of whether the past experience was recent (3 months ago) or in the distant past (3 years ago). Implications for cross-cultural applicability of TSA theory are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In view of the fact that materialism may be caused by feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem, this paper attempts to answer the question of what the role of self-improvement is in the development of materialistic tendencies. Participants and procedure Two experiments were carried out (n = 144, n = 126). Half of the participants were exposed to self-threat (failure), which boosts materialistic tendencies, and the others were exposed to self-enhancement (success), which allows maintenance of good self-esteem. In both cases participants were given an opportunity to undertake self-improvement (i.e. redo a task that previously had turned out to be a failure/success). Analyses of materialistic tendencies were based on financial aspirations (study 1) and intentions to purchase luxurious good (study 2). Results The results show that people have lower fiscal aspirations (study 1) and want to buy luxury products less (study 2) when they undertake self-improvement in a self-threat (failure) situation. However, when people undertake self-improvement in a self-enhancement situation (success) they have higher fiscal aspirations (study 1) and want to buy luxury products more (study 2). Conclusions Self-improvement may be an antidote to materialistic aspirations if undertaken in a self-threat situation, but it may also be a source of materialistic aspirations if undertaken in a self-enhancement situation.

Financial deprivation is associated with excessive discounting of delayed rewards. In the present research, we argue that this counterproductive tendency may be driven, at least in part, by the aversive and self-threatening nature of experiencing financial deprivation. Accordingly, we propose that self-affirmation—an intervention known to buffer negative consequences of psychological threats—may reduce delay discounting of the financially deprived. Results of two high-powered, preregistered experiments support this proposition. Specifically, in Study 1 (n = 546), we show that among participants with relatively lower income, self-affirmation effectively reduces delay discounting. In Study 2 (n = 432), we manipulate the feeling of financial deprivation and demonstrate that self-affirmation reduces delay discounting among those who feel financially deprived. We also examine the underlying process of this effect and find that self-affirmation bolsters a sense of personal control among those who feel financially deprived, which in turn reduces their delay discounting (Study 2). Overall, our findings suggest that the relationship between financial deprivation and delay discounting is malleable and psychological interventions that attenuate self-threats and bolster a sense of personal control can be applied to reduce myopic tendencies of the poor.

Stereotype threat (ST) refers to the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one's group. Distinct forms of ST can be elicited based on both the target and the source of the threat. Here, we focused on how peculiar ST sources distinctly impact performance for individuals who face self-based threats. More particularly, we hypothesized that the decrease in performance would be stronger for individuals who face a self-concept threat (triggered by a private self-evaluation) in comparison with those who face an own-reputation threat (triggered by a public evaluation). In two studies, participants were randomly assigned to one of the following experimental conditions: control, self-concept, or own-reputation threat. Results confirmed the hypothesis by showing that participants in the control condition perform better than those in the own-reputation threat condition, who performed better than those in the self-concept threat condition. The contributions of this work as well as the limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial deprivation is associated with excessive discounting of delayed rewards. In the present research, we argue that this counterproductive tendency may be driven, at least in part, by the aversive and self-threatening nature of experiencing financial deprivation. Accordingly, we propose that self-affirmation—an intervention known to buffer negative consequences of psychological threats—may reduce delay discounting of the financially deprived. Results of two high-powered, preregistered experiments support this proposition. Specifically, in Study 1 (n = 546), we show that among participants with relatively lower income, self-affirmation effectively reduces delay discounting. In Study 2 (n = 432), we manipulate the feeling of financial deprivation and demonstrate that self-affirmation reduces delay discounting among those who feel financially deprived. We also examine the underlying process of this effect and find that self-affirmation bolsters a sense of personal control among those who feel financially deprived, which in turn reduces their delay discounting (Study 2). Overall, our findings suggest that the relationship between financial deprivation and delay discounting is malleable and psychological interventions that attenuate self-threats and bolster a sense of personal control can be applied to reduce myopic tendencies of the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research on public communication campaigns has shown that the negative appeals (e.g. fear, guilt appeals) commonly used may not be effective for encouraging prosocial behaviors, as they can facilitate defensive processing. Self-affirmation theory suggests that self-affirmation may be a useful strategy for mitigating defensive responses to potentially self-threatening messages. This cross-national study explored the effect of self-affirmation on the persuasiveness of a threat appeal message in the context of climate change. An experiment with a 3 (no affirmation versus message-integrated affirmation versus message-separate affirmation) × 2 (high self-threatening versus low self-threatening message) × 2 (U.S. versus Korea) factorial design (N = 225, U.S.; N = 255, Korea) was employed to test this postulation. The results suggested that self-affirmation has a positive effect on perceived risk, attitude toward message, and intention to engage in environmentally-friendly behaviors, although this effect is limited to high self-threat conditions. Additionally, a statistically significant interaction between self-affirmation and culture was found for the effect on behavioral intention. Finally, message-integrated affirmation manipulation was found to be as effective as message-separate affirmation manipulation. The implications of these findings for public communication campaigns in terms of promoting prosocial behaviors are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contingent self-worth has been studied as an individual differences variable affecting how self-relevant information is processed. We examined the effects of self-relevant information on contingent self-worth as a dependent variable. In Experiment 1 (N = 79, college students), participants' performance contingency was higher after negative than positive performance feedback. In Experiment 2 (N = 3764, community sample), social approval and appearance contingencies were lower in a social approval condition than in control conditions. Mediation analyses suggested this effect was mediated by enhanced self-esteem. Thus, self-esteem increased due to the very source that participants came to regard as less important: Social approval. Results are explained in terms of sociometer theory and limited introspection abilities: All self-esteem is sensitive to external contingencies, people just become more aware of this when it is threatened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Those high in narcissism may use punishment as a form of covert aggression to assert social dominance. • P’s high in vulnerable narcissism favored more spiteful punishment regardless of self-threat. • Grandiose narcissism was un-related to the endorsement of spiteful punishment. Abstract Individuals high in narcissism have been shown to self-enhance through aggression after self-esteem threats. Research distinguishes between two types of narcissism: grandiose and vulnerable. The present study investigated spiteful punishment (punishments with the chief purpose to inflict harm) as a possible covert, aggressive self-enhancement method. Participants (N = 456) completed measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, and then either experienced a self-esteem threat or a control condition. Participants read a vignette about a transgressor and rated their endorsement of a series of punishments. Participants high in vulnerable narcissism endorsed more spiteful punishment compared to those lower in vulnerable narcissism, regardless of self-threat. This suggests that those high in vulnerable narcissism may have a base-line degree of covert antisocial self-enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do individuals sometimes claim a decision is unfair when the decision process is considered fair by socially accepted standards? Past research on the interaction pattern between procedural and distributive justice generally supports the fair process effect, the idea that fair procedures ameliorate negative reactions to unfavorable decision outcomes. However, some research suggests that self-relevant variables play a role in altering the interaction pattern. Using elements of attribution theory, specifically external self-serving bias and self-threat, with group identification, we develop a new self-threat model of procedural justice. Specifically, we hypothesize that when individuals experience self-threat (threat to the ego or self-concept) as a result of a decision outcome, the tendency to protect the self by engaging in externalized attributions may result in lower perceptions of fairness and organizational justice regardless of whether the decision process is fair. Results indicate that group identification is negatively related to external self-serving bias, but is not significantly related to perceptions of self-threat. However, external self-serving bias and perceptions of self-threat are negatively related to perceptions of procedural justice. The results may help explain why individuals who have low group identification or who feel undervalued by society, such as minorities or people with disabilities, may be more likely to react negatively to an unfavorable outcome determined by fair procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND In view of the fact that materialism may be caused by feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem, this paper attempts to answer the question of what the role of self-improvement is in the development of materialistic tendencies. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE Two experiments were carried out (n = 144, n = 126). Half of the participants were exposed to self-threat (failure), which boosts materialistic tendencies, and the others were exposed to self-enhancement (success), which allows maintenance of good self-esteem. In both cases participants were given an opportunity to undertake self-improvement (i.e. redo a task that previously had turned out to be a failure/success). Analyses of materialistic tendencies were based on financial aspirations (study 1) and intentions to purchase luxurious good (study 2). RESULTS The results show that people have lower fiscal aspirations (study 1) and want to buy luxury products less (study 2) when they undertake self-improvement in a self-threat (failure) situation. However, when people undertake self-improvement in a self-enhancement situation (success) they have higher fiscal aspirations (study 1) and want to buy luxury products more (study 2). CONCLUSIONS Self-improvement may be an antidote to materialistic aspirations if undertaken in a self-threat situation, but it may also be a source of materialistic aspirations if undertaken in a self-enhancement situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people feel socially threatened and excluded, they could use their mobile phones to reconnect with others and feel better. We assumed that such positive results can occur even if mobile phones are not actively used. Rather, it may suffice if users believe that carrying a mobile phone ensures social connection. This mindset may help users recover a sense of belonging during self-threatening situations. In two experiments, we asked whether the smartphone as a physical device or its symbolic representation can aid in everyday self-threatening situations. In Study 1 (N = 74), participants with their smartphones in their pockets experienced less threatened belongingness than those who were deprived of their smartphones. In Study 2 (N = 419), participants who encountered a smartphone symbol with social apps after feeling socially excluded recovered better than those who encountered a symbol with informational apps, but showed no difference in recovery compared to those who encountered no symbol at all. Findings support the idea that smartphones can 'physically' buffer against social threats and partially serve as subtle reminders of social bonds. • Smartphones as physical devices and symbols represent social bonds and affiliation. • Beyond mere use, they can help users deal with feeling ostracized. • With smartphones in the pocket, users felt less socially threatened than without. • Social app cues reduced feeling ostracized better than information app cues. • Social app cues reduced feeling ostracized not better than providing no cues at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When consumers experience a self-threat due to receiving negative information that calls the positivity of their self-concept into question, psychological discomfort ensues, motivating consumers to seek a resolution. This research examines how consumers use word of mouth to overcome this discomfort and cope with a self-threat. The psychological discomfort associated with a self-threat generally influences consumers to refrain from spreading word of mouth in order to avoid the potential for further negative evaluations. However, a self-threat can encourage the spread of word of mouth if consumers perceive a brand as possessing attributes positively associated with the threatened aspect of the self, signaling sufficiency in the threat domain. Furthermore, this research demonstrates that spreading word of mouth about a brand that signals sufficiency in the threat domain is an effective coping tactic that alleviates the psychological discomfort caused by the self-threat. Overall, the present research deepens the current understanding of the relationships among self-threat, symbolic brands, and word of mouth by revealing that a brand's symbolic associations shape the effect of the self-threat on word of mouth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although abundant research has documented positive interpersonal outcomes of perspective taking, a growing body of evidence indicates that perspective taking can also induce negative interpersonal outcomes—in other words, it backfires. We aim at integrating these seemingly contradictory findings, suggesting that perspective taking backfires when it causes the perspective-taking individual to feel threatened. Threat can emerge from the very act of perspective taking if the target of perspective taking is perceived as too different from the self or if adopting another’s perspective creates the potential for negative self-evaluation. Furthermore, threat may emerge if perspective taking successfully creates perceptions of self-other overlap, but the overlapping characteristics accentuate potentially threatening characteristics of the target. Our theoretical model affords predictions for other conditions in which perspective taking is linked to self-threat and may backfire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employee referral programmes encourage employees to recommend outstanding candidates to their organizations. However, a superior candidate can be a threat to a referee. People tend to not recommend higher performing candidates who have the same strengths as themselves because these candidates can be a threat to their self-positivity. This is known as social comparison bias (Garcia et al., 2010, Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process., 113, 97) and has a tendency to hinder the effectiveness of employee referral programmes. We propose that supervisors will show less social comparison bias than their subordinates. Data taken from the results of three experiments and a field study show that supervisors (vs. subordinates) exhibit less social comparison bias (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2), and we learn that self-threat account for the difference between supervisors and subordinates (Study 2). Moreover, we verify that the difference between supervisors and subordinates in terms of their willingness to provide a recommendation reflects social comparison bias rather than a complementarity concern (Study 3). Practitioner points Positions influence the willingness to provide a recommendation., Supervisors (vs. subordinates) are less threatened by a higher performing other who has the same strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arrogant brands have a multifaceted influence on consumers: Although consumers appreciate arrogant brands as reflecting high status and quality, arrogance can also make consumers feel inferior. Consumers whose self is a priori threatened may consequently “say no to the glow” and avoid arrogant brands. Results from six experiments using fictitious or actual arrogant brands show that when consumers experience prior self-threat, they may avoid brands that convey arrogance in favor of a competing, less-arrogant alternative. Such avoidance helps self-threatened consumers restore their self-perceptions and feel better about themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]