I'm like you and you're like me: Social projection and self-stereotyping both help explain self-other correspondence

Jeff C. Cho, Eric D. Knowles

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Social projection and self-stereotyping are rival explanations for self- other correspondence, in which people tend to perceive a high degree of similarity between themselves and others. The present research shows that both accounts are correct-that is, that knowledge of the self and knowledge of others are mutually constraining. In Study 1, participants whose self-views were experimentally manipulated revised their judgments of an immediate ingroup. In Study 2, an analogous manipulation of ingroup traits altered participants' self-views. In Study 3, participants who were ascribed a trait readily projected to and stereotyped from their relevant ingroup, but not to or from an outgroup. Finally, Study 4 provides reaction-latency evidence for social projection and self-stereotyping as judgmental processes leading to self- other correspondence. In this task, participants referenced self-knowledge when reaching ingroup-descriptiveness judgments (evidence for social projection) and ingroup knowledge when judging the self (evidence for self-stereotyping). Implications for the debate between protocentric and egocentric accounts of person perception are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)444-456
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of personality and social psychology
Volume104
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

Keywords

  • Self-stereotyping
  • Social identity
  • Social judgment
  • Social projection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Sociology and Political Science

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