Treating thoughts as material objects can increase or decrease their impact on evaluation
Entity
UAM. Departamento de Psicología Social y MetodologíaPublisher
Sage Publications, Inc.Date
2013Citation
10.1177/0956797612449176
Psychological Science 24.1 (2013): 41–47
ISSN
0956-7976 (print); 1467-9280 (online)DOI
10.1177/0956797612449176Funded by
This research was supported in part by Spanish Grant No. PSI2011-26212 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación to the first author and by National Science Foundation Grant No. 0847834 to the third author.Project
Gobierno de España. PSI2011-26212Editor's Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612449176Subjects
Attitudes; Self-control; Validation; Mindfulness; PsicologíaNote
When posting or re-using the article, you should provide a link/URL from the article posted to the SAGE Journals Online site where the article is published: http://online.sagepub.com and please make the following acknowledgment: "The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in <journal>, Vol/Issue, Month/Year by SAGE Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © [The Author(s)]"Rights
© The Author(s) 2013. Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navAbstract
In Western dualistic culture, it is assumed that thoughts cannot be treated as material objects; however, language is replete
with metaphorical analogies suggesting otherwise. In the research reported here, we examined whether objectifying
thoughts can influence whether the thoughts are used in subsequent evaluations. In Experiment 1, participants wrote about
what they either liked or disliked about their bodies. Then, the paper on which they wrote their thoughts was either ripped up and tossed in the trash or kept and checked for errors. When participants physically discarded a representation of their thoughts, they mentally discarded them as well, using them less in forming judgments than did participants who retained a representation of their thoughts. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and also showed that people relied on their thoughts more when they physically kept them in a safe place—putting their thoughts in their pockets—than when they discarded them. A final study revealed that these effects were stronger when the action was performed physically rather than merely imagined.
Files in this item
Google Scholar:Briñol Turnes, Pablo Antonio
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Gascó, Margarita
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Petty, Richard E.
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Horcajo Rosado, Francisco Javier
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