Implicit Self-esteem - Overview

Overview

Implicit self-esteem has been specifically defined as "the introspectively unidentified (or inaccurately identified) effect of the self-attitude on evaluation of self-associated and self-dissociated objects". Considering the difficulties which come with verbalizing one's intuitions, measures of implicit self-esteem offer an avenue into people's deep seated feelings about themselves. In the vast majority of implicit self-esteem measures, people rate themselves in a highly positive manner. The overestimation of one's traits and abilities is argued to be a spillover of positive affect from the self to objects associated with the self. This "spillover" is automatic and unconscious. Implicit self-esteem therefore offers an explanation of positivity bias for things related to the self. Associations are especially important; implicit self-esteem is made up of a series of associations between the self and a positive or negative evaluation of the self. This is especially shown in measures of the Implicit Association Test.