Autobiography, Reputation, and the Self: On the Role of Evaluative Valence and Self-Consistency of the Self-Relevant Information

Abstract

The effects of retrieving self-consistent or inconsistent behavioral and social reputation information on the speed of subsequent trait self-descriptiveness judgments was examined in three experiments. Across the three investigations, priming self-descriptiveness judgments with judgment consistent behavioral or social reputation information facilitated self-judgments compared to appropriate control self-judgments. In contrast, priming with inconsistent behavioral or reputational information did not facilitate self-descriptiveness judgments relative to controls. Experiment three also demonstrated that priming self-descriptiveness judgments on traits about which one was certain with behavioral or social reputation information facilitated such judgments. Priming traits about which one was uncertain with behavioral or reputational information did not result in faster self-descriptiveness judgments. Results are discussed with respect to the processes involved in making self-descriptiveness judgments.