implicit cognition

This study aimed to examine the effect of social exclusion on state self-esteem at both implicit and explicit levels and the moderating role of trait implicit and explicit self-esteem in this relation. It was an experimental study with one between-subjects factor (acceptance, rejection). Participants were 110 individuals (80% women) with a mean age of 27.4 years who participated in this study voluntarily and online in fall 1400. They first responded to measures of explicit and implicit trait self-esteem then received the social exclusion manipulation by "writing about previous experience" and finally responded to measures of explicit and implicit state self-esteem. Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and single-item self-esteem scale (Donnellan et al., 2015) were used to measure explicit self-esteem. Implicit Association Test (Greenwald & Farnham, 2000) and Name-Letter Test (Kitayama & Karasawa, 1997) were used to assess implicit self-esteem. Consistent with sociometer theory, implicit state self-esteem was lower in response to the rejection condition compared to the acceptance condition. In contrast, explicit state self-esteem was not different between the acceptance and rejection conditions. One possible explanation for this finding is the activation of conscious defense mechanisms to protect self-esteem in response to the experience of social rejection. The effect of social exclusion on implicit state self-esteem was not moderated with either explicit or implicit trait self-esteem. whereas the effect of social exclusion on explicit state self-esteem was moderated with both explicit and implicit trait self-esteem. The effect of social exclusion on explicit state self-esteem was moderated such that explicit state self-esteem of participants with either high implicit or low explicit trait self-esteem was less vulnerable to the experience of social exclusion. Differences of explicit and implicit state self-esteem in response to social exclusion in different levels of explicit and implicit trait self-esteem need further investigation.

Social cognition is divided to implicit and explicit arenas. Gawronski & Bodenhausen (2006)’s Associative-Propositional Evaluation model predicts that during the translation of a particular cognition from implicit to explicit, consistency of this specific implicit cognition with explicit versions of other cognitions is examined and the more consistency is found, the less necessity will be to modify this cognition, and therefore, the resulting explicit version will have a stronger relationship with its original implicit version. This study aims to test this hypothesis in the context of three cognitions of gender identity, major identity, and gender-major stereotype. In addition, investigation of the moderating role of consistency with other implicit cognitions in the implicit-explicit relationship will be pursued as an exploratory objective. One hundred and ninety-two undergraduate students from two universities in Tehran (half humanities and half math-engineering, half female and half male) participated in this correlational study. The three cognitions were measured both indirectly using Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998), and directly using Likert questions. For each cognition, hierarchical regression analyses were applied to test the moderating role of cognitive consistency. Neither consistency with other explicit cognitions nor consistency with other implicit cognitions significantly moderated the relationship between implicit and explicit versions of either gender identity or major identity. In case of stereotype, whereas consistency with other explicit cognitions was not a significant moderator, consistency with other implicit cognitions was marginally significant. Gawronski & Bodenhausen (2006)’s theory was confirmed for none of the three cognitions. As for the stereotype, results indicate that two processes other than the one depicted in this theory might be involved in the construction of explicit stereotype: one process based on the other explicit cognitions, and the other based on the consistency between the three cognitions in the implicit arena.