Accepting Threatening Information: Self–Affirmation and the Reduction of Defensive Biases

By D. Sherman, Geoffrey L. Cohen. 2002

429 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/efa426cefbedeb6a8d58ba3c27f93d8e20c2bf01

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Citations in the corpus

The costly pursuit of self-esteem. (2004, methodology): “…and prejudice, alleviates " hardening of the attitudes " under conditions of uncertainty, and increases openness to negative or threatening information, thus facilitating learning (Fein & Spencer, 1997; McGregor, Zanna, Holmes, & Spencer, 2001; Sherman & Cohen, 2002; Steele, 1988; Tesser, 2000).”
Culture and Identity-Protective Cognition: Explaining the White Male Effect in Risk Perception (2007, background): “Researchers have shown that individuals who are either personally affirmed or exposed to group-affirming stimuli thereafter display less bias when processing information that is contrary to beliefs dominantly held by their peers (Cohen et al. 2000; Sherman & Cohen 2002; Cohen et al. in press).”
Measuring defensive responses to threatening messages: a meta-analysis of measures (2007, background): “Rejection of the photoageing risk could represent defensiveness because failing to accept a threatening message ‘protects self-worth shielding people from the conclusion that their beliefs or actions were misguided’ (Sherman & Cohen, 2002, p. 119).”
Ideology, motivated reasoning, and cognitive reflection (2013, background): “These consequences could substantially diminish her welfare—materially and psychically (Sherman & Cohen, 2002; Akerlof & Kranton, 2000; Hillman, 2010).”
An affirmed self and an open mind: Self-affirmation and sensitivity to argument strength. (2004, background): “…improve understanding, people seem to be motivated to discount both the source and the content of a challenging message in an effort to protect their existing beliefs (Cohen, Aronson, & Steele, 2000; Reed & Aspinwall, 1998; Sherman, Nelson, & Steele, 2000; for a review, see Sherman & Cohen, 2002).”
Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects (2007, methodology): “As in the mindfulness research reviewed here, self-enhancement manipulations have been shown to make individuals more open and objective in evaluating threatening information ( Correll, Spencer, & Zanna, 2004 ; Sherman & Cohen, 2002 ).”
Relational selves as self-affirmational resources (2008, background): “Despite the longstanding emphasis on individual aspects of the self, in a recent review of the self-affirmation literature Sherman and Cohen (2006) noted growing evidence for the role of collective selves, or aspects of the self as a group member (e.”
The threat vs. challenge of car parking for women: How self- and group affirmation affect cardiovascular responses (2011, background): “…also because previous research on the effects of self-affirmation (e.g., Cohen et al., 2006; Koole & Van Knippenberg, 2007; Martens et al., 2006; Sherman & Cohen, 2002) and group affirmation (Derks, Van Laar & Ellemers, 2006; 2009; Sherman et al., 2007) has convincingly demonstrated the…”