Department of Psychology, St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G3.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2013 May;39(5):578-95. doi: 10.1177/0146167213479134. Epub 2013 Mar 15.
Self-expansion without regard for others' well-being may represent the dark side of an otherwise healthy motive. Guided by Amoebic Self-Theory (AST), we developed the Engulfing Self Scale (ESS) to measure acquisitive tendencies across AST's three domains of the self. Four studies revealed that bodily engulfment appeared generally benign, and that the problematic aspects of social engulfment were generally restricted to interpersonal contexts. Spatial-symbolic engulfment motivation was linked to a breadth of problematic indices such as psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychological entitlement, social dominance orientation, economic system justification, greed, and valuation of power. It also predicted reluctance to expose a cheating group leader when doing so would threaten one's own positive outcomes, greater justification of a looter's behavior when prompted take his or her perspective, and greater justification of self-serving reward allocations after defeating an ostensible competitor. Spatial-symbolic engulfment may be a motivational fountainhead for behaviors that negate others' well-being.
自我扩张而不顾他人的幸福可能代表了一种健康动机的阴暗面。受阿米巴自我理论（AST）的启发，我们开发了吞噬自我量表（ESS）来衡量 AST 自我的三个领域中的占有倾向。四项研究表明，身体吞噬通常是良性的，而社会吞噬的问题方面通常仅限于人际环境。空间符号吞噬动机与广泛的问题指标相关，例如精神病态、马基雅维利主义、自恋、心理权利感、社会支配取向、经济制度辩护、贪婪以及对权力的重视。它还预示着当暴露作弊的组长会威胁到自己的积极结果时，人们会不愿意这样做；当被提示从掠夺者的角度看问题时，人们会更倾向于为掠夺者的行为辩护；在击败一个表面上的竞争对手后，人们会更倾向于为自利的奖励分配辩护。空间符号吞噬可能是一种动机源泉，它会导致否定他人幸福的行为。
