# Presentation: 116788

## Self-Affirmation and the Processing of Health Risk InformationBill KleinUniversity of PittsburghPresentation at 2005 meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology

## Self-Affirmation & Dissonance 

- Aronson, Steele: cognitive dissonance challenges one’s integrity and self-worth

## Self-Affirmation & Dissonance 

- Aronson, Steele: cognitive dissonance challenges one’s integrity and self-worth
- If threat to self can be minimized, no need to resolve dissonance

## Self-Affirmation & Dissonance 

- Aronson, Steele: cognitive dissonance challenges one’s integrity and self-worth
- If threat to self can be minimized, no need to resolve dissonance
- Steele and Liu (1983): focusing on important value reduces attitude change in induced compliance paradigm

## Self-Affirmation & Dissonance 

- Aronson, Steele: cognitive dissonance challenges one’s integrity and self-worth
- If threat to self can be minimized, no need to resolve dissonance
- Steele and Liu (1983): focusing on important value reduces attitude change in induced compliance paradigm
- Tesser (2000): self-protection strategies are substitutable

## Self-Affirmation & Dissonance 

- Aronson, Steele: cognitive dissonance challenges one’s integrity and self-worth
- If threat to self can be minimized, no need to resolve dissonance
- Steele and Liu (1983): focusing on important value reduces attitude change in induced compliance paradigm
- Tesser (2000): self-protection strategies are substitutable
- Fein & Spencer (1997): self-affirmation reduces prejudice following negative feedback

## Self-Affirmation  Processing Health Information  

- Reed & Aspinwall (1998):
- Consumers of caffeine presented with risk-confirming and risk-disconfirming information linking fibrocystic disease to caffeine consumption

## Self-Affirmation  Processing Health Information  

- Reed & Aspinwall (1998):
- Consumers of caffeine presented with risk-confirming and risk-disconfirming information linking fibrocystic disease to caffeine consumption
- Half self-affirmed by writing about kindness

## Self-Affirmation  Processing Health Information  

- Reed & Aspinwall (1998):
- Consumers of caffeine presented with risk-confirming and risk-disconfirming information linking fibrocystic disease to caffeine consumption
- Half self-affirmed by writing about kindness
- Mood also measured to ensure that self-affirmation was not simply a proxy for good mood (and it wasn’t)

## Self-Affirmation  Processing Health Information  

- Self-affirmation/high use participants:
- oriented more quickly to risk-confirming information

## Self-Affirmation  Processing Health Information  

- Self-affirmation/high use participants:
- oriented more quickly to risk-confirming information
- found risk-confirming information more convincing

## Self-Affirmation  Processing Health Information  

- Self-affirmation/high use participants:
- oriented more quickly to risk-confirming information
- found risk-confirming information more convincing
- recalled less risk-disconfirming info. at follow-up, and the same amount of risk-confirming info.

## Self-Affirmation  Processing Health Information  

- Sherman, Nelson, & Steele (2000):
- Caffeine paradigm (Study 1): Self-affirmation led participants to be more accepting of threatening health information, *and* to intend behavioral changes
- HIV paradigm (Study 2): Self-affirmation increased HIV risk perceptions and led to purchase of more condoms

## Deductive Risk Perceptions  

- Klein, Blier, & Janze (2001):
- 217 Maine high school students rated their risk of alcohol poisoning as well as their standing on several risk factors (e.g., number of drinks consumed in one sitting)

## Deductive Risk Perceptions  

- Klein, Blier, & Janze (2001):
- 217 Maine high school students rated their risk of alcohol poisoning as well as their standing on several risk factors (e.g., number of drinks consumed in one sitting)
- Independent variables: Social comparison feedback (X’s on risk factor scales), Self-affirmation (essay about some event that made them feel proud)

## Social Comparison Feedback

- In general, how many drinks do you typically consume in one sitting?
- 	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
- 	2 or fewer	3-4	5-6	7-8	9-10	11-12	13 or more
- 	drinks	drinks	drinks	drinks	drinks	drinks	drinks

## Results  

- Correlation between *risk factor ratings* and *risk perceptions* was highly significant in all conditions *except *in comparison information/affirmation condition

- (Klein, Blier, & Janze, 2001)

|  | Comparison Information | No Comparison Information |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Self-affirmation |  | X |
| Control | X | X |

## Results  

- Correlation between *risk factor ratings* and *risk perceptions* was highly significant in all conditions *except *in comparison information/affirmation condition
- Self-esteem was a better predictor of risk perceptions in this condition than in any of the others

- (Klein, Blier, & Janze, 2001)

## Follow-ups 

- Deductive risk perceptions only emerge when self-affirmation is in *unrelated* domain
- Deductive risk perceptions can happen when threat and attention to self are paired via “self-repudiation”

## Reed & Aspinwall (1998)  

- Self-affirmation/high use participants:
- oriented more quickly to risk-confirming information, *but:*
*spent less time reading information*

## Reed & Aspinwall (1998)  

- Self-affirmation/high use participants:
- oriented more quickly to risk-confirming information, *but:*
*spent less time reading information*
- found risk-confirming information more convincing, *but:*
*didn’t remember any more of it at follow-up, and remembered less of disconfirming information*

## Reed & Aspinwall (1998)  

- Self-affirmation/high use participants:
- oriented more quickly to risk-confirming information, *but:*
*spent less time reading information*
- found risk-confirming information more convincing, *but:*
*didn’t remember any more of it at follow-up, and remembered less of disconfirming information*
*intended to consume more caffeine (though did not by follow-up)*

## Reed & Aspinwall (1998)  

- Self-affirmation/high use participants:
- oriented more quickly to risk-confirming information, *but:*
*spent less time reading information*
- found risk-confirming information more convincing, *but:*
*didn’t remember any more of it at follow-up, and remembered less of disconfirming information*
*intended to consume more caffeine (though did not by follow-up)*
*memory for confirmatory information was uncorrelated with belief change (as opposed to no affirmation/low use participants; *r*s = .25 and .55, respectively)*

## Sherman et al. (2000)  

- HIV paradigm (Study 2): Self-affirmation increased HIV risk perceptions and led to purchase of more condoms, *but*:

|  | Perceived risk/similarity to people in video  | Perceived risk/intentions to use condoms |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Affirmation Condition | .24   | .04 |
| No Affirmation Condition | .51* | .26 |

- **p* < .01.

## Critical Variables    

- Relationship between cognitions and behavior (as in previous studies)
- Intentions and behavior
- Processing, memory
- Moderators

## Colorectal Cancer Study    

- Colorectal Cancer Study

- 143 adults between 50-75 years old who were off-schedule for colorectal cancer screening
- Tailored feedback about CRC risk
- IVs:
- Self-affirmed or not before feedback
- Unrealistically optimistic (UO) or not about CRC risk
- DV: Memory for feedback

## Colorectal Cancer Study    

- Colorectal Cancer Study

## Caffeine Study    

|  | Self-affirmed | Control |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Worry | 2.85 | 3.59 |
| Intentions | 4.11 | 5.19 |
| Information | 4.07 | 5.52 |
| Should cut down | 5.22 | 6.56 |

## Conclusions   

- Self-affirmation may reduce defensiveness when processing threatening health messages

## Conclusions   

- Self-affirmation may reduce defensiveness when processing threatening health messages
- However, it may also reduce memory for those messages, and may disassociate health cognitions from behavior

## Conclusions   

- Self-affirmation may reduce defensiveness when processing threatening health messages
- However, it may also reduce memory for those messages, and may disassociate health cognitions from behavior
- Effects of self-affirmation may be moderated by unrealistic optimism and other individual differences

## Conclusions   

- Self-affirmation may reduce defensiveness when processing threatening health messages
- However, it may also reduce memory for those messages, and may disassociate health cognitions from behavior
- Effects of self-affirmation may be moderated by unrealistic optimism and other individual differences
- Need more research to understand underlying processes (e.g., Correll et al., 2004)