The Rough Guide to Psychology An Introduction to Human Behaviour and the Mind (Rough Guides)

with the name of a significant rela-
tion, such as a parent, who wanted
them to work hard and succeed. The
effect was to cause the participants to
work extra hard at the task. But in a
twist to the experiment, a colleague
of Shah, Tanya Chartrand, showed
that the subconscious was able to
resist this subliminal pressure when
the significant other was perceived
as overbearing. Chartrand primed
participants in the same way as Shah,
but this time the significant other
was deemed to be not just ambi-
tious for the participant, but also
controlling. The result was that the
participants tried less hard than
usual at the task, an effect Chartrand
called nonconscious reactance.
But thoughts of others don’t have to be subconscious to have an effect.
When Barry Schlenker at the University of Florida asked female partici-
pants to deliberately visualize a significant other, he tricked them into
thinking the experiment was about the effect of visualization on heart
rate. Appropriate medical equipment was in place, and part of the task
required visualizing mundane items and experiences, as well as other
people. After completing the task, the participants were asked to fill
out personality questionnaires. Schlenker found that participants who’d
visualized their parents subsequently rated themselves as less sensual,
adventurous, dominant, extrovert and industrious than those asked to
visualize a friend or romantic partner. Another version of the experi-
ment showed that female students with low self-esteem who visualized
a romantic partner rated themselves as less sensuous, relaxed and physi-
cally attractive than did students with high self-esteem.
A study from 2008 suggests these kind of absent influences could even
be put to practical use. Simone Schnall at the University of Plymouth
and her collaborators asked participants wearing backpacks to stand at
the foot of a hill and estimate its steepness. Those who had a supportive
friend standing nearby perceived the hill to be less steep than control
participants. Crucially, so too did participants who merely thought about
a supportive friend before making their estimate.