Implicit and explicit self-esteem: The moderating effect of individualism

Results of studies on the relationship between implicit (ISE) and explicit (ESE) self-esteem have been inconsistent, possibly because of the moderating influence of factors such as gender, response latency, and cognitive load. We examined the moderating effect of cultural tendency on the relationship between ISE and ESE in the context of Chinese culture. We developed a Chinese version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure participants’ ISE. Participants were 100 undergraduate students at 2 Chinese universities, who completed the IAT and a series of quantitative measures to assess their ISE, ESE, and cultural tendency. Results showed that there was a weak correlation between ISE and ESE, and that individualism, rather than collectivism, moderated the relationship between ISE and ESE.