Affirming The Self To Promote Agreement With Another: Lowering A Psychological Barrier To Conflict Resolution
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2011
Published In
Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin
Abstract
Two studies investigated the capacity of a self-affirmation intervention to lower a psychological barrier to conflict resolution. Study 1 used a role-play scenario in which a student negotiated with a professor for greater rewards for work on a collaborative project. A self-affirmation manipulation, in which participants focused on an important personal value, significantly reduced their tendency to derogate a concession offered by the professor relative to one that had not been offered. Study 2 replicated this effect and showed that the phenomenon did not depend on the self-affirmed participant’s experience of a heightened sense of deservingness or a tendency to make positive attributions about the professor. Distraction and explicit mood enhancement were also ruled out as mediators of the self-affirmation effect, which appears to stem from motivational rather than explicit cognitive processes.
Recommended Citation
Andrew Ward, D. C. Atkins, M. R. Lepper, and L. Ross.
(2011).
"Affirming The Self To Promote Agreement With Another: Lowering A Psychological Barrier To Conflict Resolution".
Personality And Social Psychology Bulletin.
Volume 37,
Issue 9.
1216-1228.
DOI: 10.1177/0146167211409439
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-psychology/115
