Self-presentational Analysis Research Articles

Faking Alternative Journalism? An Analysis of Self-Presentations of “Fake News” Sites

Scholars have come to understand fake news as content packaged to look like mainstream news but which is deceptive and low in facticity. This study focuses on the textual self-representations of 50 prominent sites labelled ‘fake news’ following the 2016 US election campaign, with an eye to understanding their stated values and how such sites might mimic other journalistic forms. Findings from a qualitative textual analysis reveal an open commitment to ideological, activist and value-driven reporting by the sites. Outlets openly disclose their biases, attack the mainstream media and privilege truths from subjective perspectives, appealing to partisan audiences disillusioned with the mainstream press. In light of our analysis, we argue that fake news producers should be understood as hybrid actors mimicking features of both mainstream and alternative journalism in a manner that results in interpretive partisan news communities.

Social Impairment of Complex Learning in the Wake of Public Embarrassment

The presence of an observer impairs complex learning. According to a self-presentational analysis, this social impairment of task performance results from the performer's embarrassment at making mistakes in public. A study was designed to assess this interpretation. Results show that the presence of a peer impairs complex learning only if the peer can see the learner make mistakes; learners compensate for this social impairment by conveying positive nonverbal impressions. We discuss implications of these results for theories of social facilitation and impairment.

Sport Preference: A Self-Presentational Analysis

This study was designed to explore cognitive and motivational factors that underlie preferences for particular sports. Based upon self-presentational theory, it was assumed that sports constitute a symbol system that communicates something about the participant's personality and identity. Individuals may learn to prefer those sports whose symbolism is appropriate to their desired social identity. In order to explore this premise, subjects were asked to rate the participants of five different sports (bowling, skiing, golf, tennis, motocross) on 70 personality and identity dimensions. Results indicated that stereotypes concerning the participants in each sport are widely shared, and that specific identity dimensions are associated with each sport.

The masculine and feminine self-disclosure scale: The politics of masculine and feminine self-presentation

A self-disclosure questionnaire was devised to examine women's and men's willingness to disclose information about the “masculine” and “feminine” aspects of themselves. The Masculine and Feminine Self-Disclosure Scale (MFSDS) has four separate subscales: two masculine scales assess the tendency to discuss agentic, instrumental traits and behaviors; and two feminine scales measure the tendency to self-disclose about communal, expressive traits and behaviors. The results indicated that women's and men's disclosure of their masculine-instrumental and feminine-expressive traits and behaviors to a disclosure recipient was tempered by the content of the disclosure and the personal characteristics of the disclosure recipient. These findings were interpreted within a self-presentational analysis that women and men attempted to foster favorable masculine-instrumental and feminine-expressive images for particular persons.

The Mediational Mole of Social Influence in the Perception of Exertion

Two experiments are reported that investigate the mediational role of social influence in the self-perception of exertion. In Experiment 1, subjects performed three 15-min trials on a cycle ergometer at 25%, 50%, and 75% VO2max, both in the presence of another performer (a coactor) and alone. The results indicated that subjects reported lower RPEs when performing with another, particularly at the moderate (50%) intensity. In Experiment 2, subjects performed one 15-min trial at 50% of VO2max, both alone and in the presence of another performer (coactor) exhibiting nonverbal "cues" that the work was either extremely easy or extremely difficult. The results indicated that subjects exposed to the low-intensity cue information reported lower RPEs than when performing alone. Mo significant differences were noted for those subjects exposed to the high-intensity cue information. These findings are discussed in terms of a self-presentational analysis. That such effects were evidenced without physiological responses (VO2, VE, HR) accompanying them supports the notion that psychological variables can play a significant role in the self-perception of exertion. These results, however, are limited to untrained individuals exercising at moderate intensities.

The Social Impact of Self-Effacing Attributions: The chinese Case

Summary It is argued that a person in Chinese societies who makes self-effacing attributions for his performance should be better liked because his self-effacing attributions support norms whose function is to maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships. To test this hypothesis, Chinese Ss (N = 56) in the experiment watched two confederates (Cs) working on an intellectual task. These Cs were either competent or incompetent and subsequently made either self-effacing or self-enhancing attributions for their performance. Ss then rated them on 12 seven-point bipolar scales tapping likability, competence, and anxiety. Results indicated that a self-effacing C was better liked but rated as less competent than a self-enhancing C. Though in the United States competent persons are better liked, such a finding was not replicated in the present study. Consistent with a self-presentational analysis, incompetent performers who made self-enhancing attributions were perceived as more anxious than performers in the other conditions. The role of culture in producing the attribution results for likability and competence was analyzed.

The "Feminine Modesty" Effect

Causal attributions were made explaining the outcomes of 48 male and 48female subjects who succeeded or failed on an anagram task. Actual outcome was manipulated by varying the difficulty of the anagram task. Half of the subjects were led to believe their scores and ratings would remain private, whereas the other half were told they would participate in a group discussion about scores and causal explanations. Manipulation of anticipated privacy level had little effect under conditions of success, but after failure female subjects made more modest attributions in the public than in the private conditions. Attributions of males remained constant across public and private failure. Results were interpreted as casting doubt on expectancy explanations for sex differences in causal attributions for task outcome and as supporting a self-presentational analysis.

Social facilitation: A self-presentational view.

This article offers a self-presentat ional account of performance in others' presence. The account attributes social facilitation to the performer's active regulation of a public image, and it attributes social impairment to embarrassment following loss of public esteem. Individuals lose esteem by making numerous errors on difficult tasks. This self-presentational analysis is tested in a study of context effects in verbal learning. Two tasks are studied: a difficult task that includes a few simple items and an easy task that includes a few complex items. Consistent with the self-presentational analysis (but not with drive theories of social facilitation), the presence of an observer impairs the learning of simple items if those items are embedded within a difficult task. Also, an observer's presence does not impair the learning of complex items if those items are embedded within an easy task. Questionnaire responses suggest a naturally occurring confound between task difficulty and perceived failure. The influence of the presence of others on individual behavior, a classic topic in social psychology, was studied extensively in the early 1900s (Dashiell, 1935). Contemporary interest in the topic derives from Zajonc's proposal (1965) that the presence of others acts as a source of generalized drive (Spence, 1956), and energizes the dominant response tendency to the exclusion of competing responses. Cottrell (1972) amended Zajonc's theory, contending that the presence of others arouses apprehension over evaluations. He claimed evaluation apprehension as a source of generalized drive. This article proposes an alternative analysis of behavior in others' presence. Following Cottrell, the analysis attributes the influence of others' presence to the potential that presence gives them for evaluation. But Cottrell seemed to ignore the fact that the object of evaluation is the individual's perThis article is based on a dissertation submitted to Duke University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD. I am grateful to Alan Levy, my dissertation adviser, for his guidance and to Mike Gottesman for help with this research.

Self-presentational analysis of the effects of incentives on attitude change following counterattitudinal behavior.

A self-presentat ional analysis of the forced compliance setting focuses on the predicament-creating aspects of Counterattitu dinal actions and on the types of accounting tactics people use to excuse or justify events that threaten their identities before real or imagined audiences. The social meaning of monetary payments that are offered for the performance of Counterattitu dinal actions should affect the nature of the predicament subjects confront. It was hypothesized that when payment is introduced in a context that increases subjects' concerns about moral evaluation relevant to bribery, a direct relationship should occur between magnitude of payment and attitude change. If payment is introduced in a context that minimizes moral evaluation relevant to bribery, however, an inverse relationship should occur. Three experiments provided support for these hypotheses. In addition, attitude change was enhanced when subjects thought they were presenting their accounts to an audience that had observed their actions. Finally, compared to observers, subjects who had received large payments attempted to redefine them to make them appear more legitimate. Despite the amount of theory and research devoted to understanding the impact of counterattitudinal action on attitudes, one particularly enigmatic problem still exists—understanding the effects of incentives on attitude change following Counterattitudinal behavior. Dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) originally generated the prediction that attitude change should be inversely related to the magnitude of payment offered subjects to perform a Counterattitud inal action, a relation

Self-presentational analysis of the effects of incentives on attitude change following counterattitudinal behavior.

Self-presentational analysis of the effects of incentives on attitude change following counterattitudinal behavior.