| Abstract: | Two experiments examined latencies of self-other similarity judgments. The judgments were obtained for traits for which self was prototypical, other was prototypical or neither was prototypical. Two question types used were as follows: self-as-referent questions ("How similar is X to you…?") and other-as-referent questions ("How similar are you to X…?"). Judgments were faster for self-prototypical traits than for neither-prototypical traits regardless of the question form. Judgments for other-prototypical traits were faster than judgments for neither-prototypical traits in the case of the other-as-referent questions, but not in the case of self-as-referent questions. Results support the notion that both self and representations of specific others serve as habitual reference points. However, they also suggest that, compared to other social prototypes, self is a more rigid reference point, which is not easily affected by linguistic factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
