TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-esteem depends on the beholder
T2 - Effects of a subtle social value cue
AU - Weisbuch, Max
AU - Sinclair, Stacey A.
AU - Skorinko, Jeanine L.
AU - Eccleston, Collette P.
PY - 2009/1
Y1 - 2009/1
N2 - The idea that self-esteem functions as a gauge or "sociometer" of social value [Leary, M. R., Baumeister, R. F. (2000). The nature and function of self-esteem: Sociometer theory. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 32, pp. 1-62). San Diego: Academic Press] is supported by research on direct social feedback. To examine if the sociometer model is relevant to more subtle social value cues, the implicit self-esteem of women was assessed a week after an interaction with an experimenter. Consistent with the sociometer model, Week 2 self-esteem depended on a subtle social value cue encountered during Week 1. When the Week 1 experimenter wore a t-shirt celebrating larger bodies (i.e., "everyBODY is beautiful"), heavier women had higher self-esteem than lighter women in Week 2. As hypothesized, this effect was relationship-specific, occurring only when the same experimenter administered Week 1 and 2 sessions.
AB - The idea that self-esteem functions as a gauge or "sociometer" of social value [Leary, M. R., Baumeister, R. F. (2000). The nature and function of self-esteem: Sociometer theory. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 32, pp. 1-62). San Diego: Academic Press] is supported by research on direct social feedback. To examine if the sociometer model is relevant to more subtle social value cues, the implicit self-esteem of women was assessed a week after an interaction with an experimenter. Consistent with the sociometer model, Week 2 self-esteem depended on a subtle social value cue encountered during Week 1. When the Week 1 experimenter wore a t-shirt celebrating larger bodies (i.e., "everyBODY is beautiful"), heavier women had higher self-esteem than lighter women in Week 2. As hypothesized, this effect was relationship-specific, occurring only when the same experimenter administered Week 1 and 2 sessions.
KW - Priming
KW - Self-esteem
KW - Social tuning
KW - Sociometer
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.021
DO - 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.07.021
M3 - Article
C2 - 20047001
AN - SCOPUS:56549115784
SN - 0022-1031
VL - 45
SP - 143
EP - 148
JO - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
IS - 1
ER -