Abstract
When individuals are exposed to their own image in a mirror, known to increase self-awareness, they may show increased accessibility of suicide-related words (a phenomenon labeled “the mirror effect”; Selimbegović & Chatard, 2013). We attempted to replicate this effect in a pre-registered study (N = 150). As in the original study, self-awareness was manipulated using a mirror and recognition latencies for accurately detecting suicide-related words, negative words, and neutral words in a lexical decision task were assessed. We found no evidence of the mirror effect in pre-registered analyses. A multiverse analysis revealed a significant mirror effect only when excluding extreme observations. An equivalence TOST test did not yield evidence for or against the mirror effect. Overall, the results suggest that the original effect was a false positive or that the conditions for obtaining it (in terms of statistical power and/or outlier detection method) are not yet fully understood. Implications for the mirror effect and recommendations for pre-registered replications are discussed.
Highlights
Self-awareness can be defined as the capacity to direct attention towards oneself and to engage in reflexive thought about oneself (Carver & Scheier, 1981)
The present study focused on one specific consequence of self-awareness, the mirror effect (Selimbegović & Chatard, 2013)
Selimbegović and Chatard (2013) suggested that mirror exposure may facilitate the detection of suicide-related words in a lexical decision task
Summary
Self-awareness can be defined as the capacity to direct attention towards oneself (self-focus state) and to engage in reflexive thought about oneself (Carver & Scheier, 1981). The results of an experiment were consistent with this prediction (Selimbegović & Chatard, 2013): participants were faster at correctly identifying suicide-related words when tested in front of a mirror, rather than in a no-mirror control condition This finding was consistent with previous research and theorizing showing (a) that self-awareness activates unfavorable comparison between one’s actual self-representation and one’s ideal self-representations (Duval & Wicklund, 1972; Scheier & Carver, 1983; Silvia & Duval, 2001), (b) that when a specific motivation is pursued the most effective means to reach that goal is activated (Eitam & Higgins, 2010; Kruglanski et al, 2002), and (c) that unfavorable comparison between the actual and ideal self can be sufficient to increase the accessibility of suicide-related thoughts (Chatard & Selimbegović, 2011; Chatard, Selimbegović, Pyszczynski, & Jaafari, 2017; Tang, Wu, & Miao, 2013)
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