Behavioral Indecision: Effects of Self-Focus on Automatic Behavior

Abstract

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that heightened self-focus would eliminate effects of stereotype activation on overt behavior. Our hypothesis was derived from the literature on conscious attention and self-focus and on recent treatments of action control. Specifically, our hypothesis was based on the notion that self-focus makes alternative behavioral cues salient and that this would lead to active inhibition of the stereotype and its effects on behavior. Indeed, results of two experiments showed that heightened self-focus overrides behavioral effects of stereotype activation. These findings were obtained with different stereotypes, priming techniques, and behavioral measures. Consciousness…undermines the lawful, predictable nature of human behavior and produces a situation of relative indeterminacy (Baumeister & Sommer, 1997, p. 75).