[Dissonance] Gawronski, Bodenhausen & Becker (2007)

[dissonance at psychologie-sociale.org]

*Référence complète :*
Gawronski, B., Bodenhausen, G. V., & Becker, A. P. (2007). I like it, 
because I like myself: Associative self-anchoring and post-decisional 
change of implicit evaluations. //Journal of Experimental Social 
Psychology//, 43(2), March 2007, 221-232

*Résumé :*
Research in the cognitive dissonancenext term tradition has shown that 
choosing between two equally attractive alternatives leads to more 
favorable evaluations of chosen as compared to rejected alternatives 
(spreading-of-alternatives effect). The present research tested 
associative self-anchoring as an alternative mechanism for 
post-decisional changes of implicit evaluations. Specifically, we argue 
that choosing an object results in the creation of an association 
between the chosen object and the self. By virtue of this association, 
implicit evaluations of the self tend to transfer to the chosen object, 
such that implicit evaluations of the chosen object depend on implicit 
evaluations of the self. Importantly, this mechanism can lead to 
ownership-related changes in implicit evaluations even in the absence of 
cognitive previous termdissonance.next term Results from four 
experiments provide converging evidence for these assumptions. 
Implications for a variety of phenomena are discussed, including 
cognitive previous termdissonance,next term the mere ownership effect, 
the endowment effect, and ingroup favoritism.

* Keywords: *
Associative processes; Attitude change; Cognitive previous 
termdissonancenext term; Implicit measures; Self-anchoring

*Contact :
Bertram Gawronski, Department of Psychology, University of Western 
Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, Ont., Canada N6A 5C2
bgawrons at uwo.ca