Self-perception theory posits that people sometimes infer their own attributes by observing their freely chosen actions. We hypothesized that in addition, people sometimes infer their own attributes by observing the freely chosen actions of others with whom they feel a sense of merged identity—almost as if they had observed themselves performing the acts. Before observing an actor’s behavior, participants were led to feel a sense of merged identity with the actor through perspective-taking instructions (Study 1) or through feedback indicating that their brainwave patterns overlapped substantially with those of the actor (Studies 2-4). As predicted, observers incorporated attributes relevant to an actor’s behavior into their own self-concepts, but only when they were led to feel a sense of merged identity with the actor and only when the actor’s behavior seemed freely chosen. These changes in relevant self-perceptions led observers to change their own behaviors accordingly. Implications of these vicarious self-perception processes for conformity, perspective-taking, and the long-term development of the self-concept are discussed.

This study investigated the relationship between teacher characteristics (gender, grade level taught, experience), personal and general teacher e$cacy, and the perception of teaching concerns. Participants included 292 Lebanese teachers from diverse school backgrounds with a wide range of teaching experience. They completed a standard teacher e$cacy questionnaire and another questionnaire that assessed their concerns about their professional practice. Results indicated that experience and personal e$cacy were negatively related to the perception of teaching concerns whereas gender, grade level taught, and general e$cacy were not related to the perception of any of the categories of teaching concerns. The results also revealed that beginning teachers and those with low sense of personal e$cacy were concerned about the task of teaching and the impact they make as teachers more than their highly experienced and more personally e$cacious counterparts. Implications for teacher development and suggestions for further research are discussed. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Queues are a ubiquitous phenomenon. This research investigates consumers’ affective experiences in a queue and their decisions to leave the queue after having spent some time in it (reneging). In particular, we find in our first two studies that, as the number of people behind increases, the consumer is in a relatively more positive affective state and the likelihood of reneging is lower. While a number of explanations may account for this effect, we focus on the role of social comparisons. In particular, we expect consumers in a queue to make downward comparisons with the less fortunate others behind them. We propose that three types of factors influence the degree of social comparisons made and thus moderate the effect of the number behind: (a) queue factors that influence the ease with which social comparisons can be made, (b) individual factors that determine the personal tendency to make social comparisons, and (c) situational factors that influence the degree of social comparisons through the generation of counterfactuals. Across three studies, we find support for each moderating effect. We conclude with a discussion on theoretical implications and limitations, and we propose avenues for