1. Can one’s personality be changed by making implicit associations with the self? Using a subliminal evaluative conditioning procedure, participants were repeatedly presented with the self-depicting word “I” and trait terms. Four conditions involved trait terms reflecting conscientiousness, unconscientiousness, extraversion, and introversion. The findings demonstrate that self-evaluations were assimilated towards the trait terms, and this effect generalized across traits of the same valence. Thus, conditioning with positive trait terms involving extraversion and conscientiousness increased one’s evaluation on these traits. Similarly, conditioning with negative trait terms of introversion and unconscientiousness increased one’s evaluation on these traits. These results extend previous findings on the subliminal conditioning of one’s self-esteem (Riketta & Dauenheimer, 2003) to the domain of personality traits. Me and Nobody : Subliminally Changing One’s Perceived Personality Evelien Vanparijs, Bert Timmermans & Frank Van Overwalle Measure of Implicit Personality To test for any personality changes, we measured participants’ personality using an implicit test in which trait words were presented similar to those presented in the experiment, and participants had to indicate as fast as possible whether the word was applicable to “me” or “not me” (Lieberman, Jarcho & Satpute, 2004). Question: Question: Why does the assimilation effect generalize to other traits of the same valence (extraversion - conscientiousness)? Stimuli & Procedure + IK XX RSI 1000 - 1500 - 2000 - 2500 ms 60 ms “I” parafoveally in one of four positions on the screen 60 ms mask + RESPONSE indicate LEFT or RIGHT RSI 1000 - 1500 - 2000 - 2500 ms 60 ms 1 trait description parafoveally in one of four positions on the screen (independent of position “I”) xxxxxxxx 60 ms mask indicate LEFT or RIGHT friendly persistent lonely messy RESPONSE Results / Discussion Trait Score. Trait Score. For the “me” and “not me” measure (in the implicit personality test), we found that self-evaluations were assimilated towards the valence of the subliminally presented trait terms, F(1,85) = 109, p <.001. This effect did not interact with the specific trait primed, p =.35 (therefore in the table we collapsed the data over the primed trait). This assimilation effect was much more pronounced when measured by means of positive trait items (extraverted, conscientious) than when measured by negative trait items (introverted, unconscientious), F(1,85) = 50.9, p <.001. This is probably due to the fact that priming with positive traits resulted in an increased tendency to respond positively (“me”), while the reverse holds for priming with negative traits. This effect is stronger when the trait measured is extraversion rather than conscientiousness, F(1,85) = 13.9, p <.001, probably due to the fact that the latter items are not as familiar to participants. Reaction Times. Reaction Times. For the RTs we found that participants respond faster to positive traits, F(1,85) = 14.8, p <.0005, which is probably due to the fact that positive traits are more socially desirable and familiar. We also found that participants responded somewhat faster following priming with positive traits, F(1,85) = 2.89, p <.10, and this was mainly the case for conscientiousness traits, F(1,85) = 4.22, p <.05. In sum, positive trait terms result an increased tendency to accept and a faster response, or maybe a “me” response is simply given easier and faster. 6.23.25.42.5 negative b trait primes 4.87.05.37.6 positive a trait primes unconscientiousconscientiousintrovertedextraverted conscientiousness scoreextraversion score Measured Trait Score (“Me” / “Not Me”, Scale 0-10) a = extraversion or conscientiousness; b = introversion or unconscientiousness