Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that the presence of a mirror does not influence Japanese people’s self-evaluation and cheating behaviors, which reflects their tendency to habitually think of themselves based on their imagined perspectives of others. The present work extends the evidence by manipulating the presence of the participants’ own voices as well as that of a mirror (Study 1); it explores the effects of another participant’s voice (Study 2). Consistent with previous findings, the presence of a mirror does not influence Japanese participants’ self-esteem, moral values, and cheating behaviors. In contrast, an impact of their own voice was partially found. The exposure to their own voice decreased the participants’ moral value of fairness and discouraged the participants from cheating by drawing additional coins. Furthermore, no effect of other voices was found. Overall, we observed a limited effect of self-focusing stimuli in Japanese participants, although it should be noted that their own voices were relatively effective for capturing self-focused attention.
Highlights
People can experience themselves as a subject and direct their conscious attention externally to the surrounding environment, and they can experience themselves as the object of other people’s attention and direct their conscious attention to themselves
According to objective self-awareness (OSA) theory (Duval and Wicklund, 1972), people have bidirectional conscious attention; this refers to when attention is directed away from the self and when attention is directed toward the self [called (OSA)]
In line with the typical reactions to a self-focusing stimulus, for Japanese participants exposed to their own voices, their selfesteem decreased compared to participants who were not exposed to their own voices
Summary
People can experience themselves as a subject and direct their conscious attention externally to the surrounding environment, and they can experience themselves as the object of other people’s attention and direct their conscious attention to themselves. According to objective self-awareness (OSA) theory (Duval and Wicklund, 1972), people have bidirectional conscious attention; this refers to when attention is directed away from the self (called subjective self-awareness) and when attention is directed toward the self [called (OSA)]. Both are mutually exclusive because people cannot direct their attention away from and toward the self at the same time. As a result, when in a state of OSA, people view themselves less positively—because they believe they have fallen short of their own standards (Ickes et al, 1973)—and engage in moral and normative behaviors (e.g., the inhibition of cheating and prosocial behaviors; Diener and Wallbom, 1976; Wegner and Schaefer, 1978)
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