The Effects of Language and Priming on the Relative Accessibility of the Private Self and the Collective Self

Abstract

An experiment addressed some limitations and implications of previous findings obtained by Trafimow, Triandis, and Goto suggesting that private and collective self-cognitions are stored in different cognitive locations. Consistent with expectations, priming the private self increased the retrieval of private self-cognitions, but priming the collective self increased the retrieval of collective self-cognitions. Further, retrieval of private and collective self-cognitions was clustered by type. The fact that such clustering was obtained with collectivist subjects in their native country, and even using their native language, supports the generality of the Trafimow et al. theory to both individualistic and collectivist cultures. In addition, however, the data indicate that using a collectivist language can increase the cognitive accessibility of the collective self relative to when an individualistic language is used. Finally, we present some speculations about possible implications of this accessibility effect.