Danu Anthony Stinson

The Cost of Lower Self-Esteem: Testing a Self- and Social-Bonds Model of Health

The authors draw upon social, personality, and health psychology to propose and test a self-and-social-bonds model of health. The model contends that lower self-esteem predicts health problems and that poor-quality social bonds explain this association. In Study 1, lower self-esteem prospectively predicted reports of health problems 2 months later, and this association was explained by subjective reports of poor social bonds. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 but used a longitudinal design with 6 waves of data collection, assessed self-reports of concrete health-related behaviors (i.e., number of visits to the doctor and classes missed due to illness), and measured both subjective and objective indicators of quality of social bonds (i.e., interpersonal stress and number of friends). In addition, Study 2 showed that poor-quality social bonds predicted acute drops in self-esteem over time, which in turn predicted acute decreases in quality of social bonds and, consequently, acute increases in health problems. In both studies, alternative explanations to the model were tested.

The Regulatory Function of Self-Esteem: Testing the Epistemic and Acceptance Signaling Systems

The authors draw on sociometer theory (e.g., Leary, 2004) and self-verification theory (e.g., Swann, 1997) to propose an expanded model of the regulatory function of self-esteem. The model suggests that people not only possess an acceptance signaling system that indicates whether relational value is high or low but also possess an epistemic signaling system that indicates whether social feedback is consistent or inconsistent with chronic perceived relational value (i.e., global self-esteem). One correlational study and 5 experiments, with diverse operationalizations of social feedback, demonstrated that the epistemic signaling system responds to self-esteem consistent or inconsistent relational-value feedback with increases or deceases in epistemic certainty. Moreover, Studies 3-6 demonstrated that the acceptance and epistemic signaling systems respond uniquely to social feedback. Finally, Studies 5 and 6 provide evidence that the epistemic signaling system is part of a broader self-regulatory system: Self-esteem inconsistent feedback caused cognitive efforts to decrease the discrepancy between self-views and feedback and caused depleted self-regulatory capacity on a subsequent self-control task.

Rewriting the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Social Rejection Self-Affirmation Improves Relational Security and Social Behavior up to 2 Months Later

Chronically insecure individuals often behave in ways that result in the very social rejection that they most fear. We predicted that this typical self-fulfilling prophecy is not immutable. Self-affirmation may improve insecure individuals’ relational security, and this improvement may allow them to express more welcoming social behavior. In a longitudinal experiment, a 15-min self-affirmation improved both the relational security and experimenter-rated social behavior of insecure participants up to 4 weeks after the initial intervention. Moreover, the extent to which self-affirmation improved insecure participants’ relational security at 4 weeks predicted additional improvements in social behavior another 4 weeks after that. Our finding that insecure participants continued to reap the social benefits of self-affirmation up to 8 weeks after the initial intervention demonstrates that it is indeed possible to rewrite the self-fulfilling prophecy of social rejection.

Perceived Regard Explains Self- Esteem Differences in Expressivity

Baumeister, Tice, and Hutton proposed that individuals with low self-esteem (LSEs) adopt a more cautious, self-protective self-presentational style than individuals with high self-esteem (HSEs). The authors predicted that LSEs’ self-protectiveness leads them to be less expressive—less revealing of their thoughts and feelings—with others than HSEs, and that this self-esteem difference is mediated by their perceptions of the interaction partner’s regard for them. Two correlational studies supported these predictions (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, LSEs became more expressive when their perceived regard was experimentally heightened—when they imagined speaking to someone who was unconditionally accepting rather than judgmental (Study 3) and when their perceptions of regard were increased through Marigold, Holmes, and Ross’s compliment-reframing task (Study 4). These findings suggest that LSEs’ expressiveness can be heightened through interventions that reduce their concerns about social acceptance.

The Bold and the Bashful Self-Esteem, Gender, and Relationship Initiation

Successful romantic relationship initiation often requires bold and direct action, but direct action can increase the possibility of rejection. These dual possible outcomes create interpersonal risk, which should prompt self-esteem differences in behavior. When risk is present, lower self-esteem individuals, who prefer to avoid social costs, will be less likely to use direct initiation behaviors than higher self-esteem individuals, who prefer to approach social rewards. However, eliminate social risk and these self-esteem differences in behavior will be similarly eliminated. Furthermore, reflecting gender-role prescriptions, we expected these effects to be evident among men, but not women. We test these hypotheses in a naturalistic study assessing retrospective behavioral reports and in a controlled laboratory experiment using behavioral coding to assess actual initiation behavior. Results were consistent with our hypotheses, revealing that gender moderated the links between self-esteem, risk, and initiation behavior in a manner consistent with gender roles.

Sex, “Lies,” and Videotape: Self-Esteem and Successful Presentation of Gender Roles

When presenting themselves to others, people attempt to create the impression that they possess socially desired traits. Verbally claiming to possess such traits is relatively simple, but making good on one’s promises by actually behaving in kind is more challenging. In particular, lower self-esteem individuals’ relational insecurity may undermine their ability to present themselves in a socially desired manner. The present research used a behavioral coding method to test these hypotheses. Participants filmed a brief introductory video in an evaluative, first impression situation. Independent sets of observers then coded participants’ verbal, nonverbal, and global self-presentations on two dimensions: communion/femininity and agency/masculinity. Results revealed that for both sexes, self-esteem was unrelated to participants’ ability to “talk the talk” by verbally describing themselves in a socially valued and gender-role specific manner, but was predictive of participants’ ability to “walk the walk” by actually behaving in kind.

The good, the bad, and the risky: Self-esteem, rewards and costs, and interpersonal risk regulation during relationship initiation

Social risk interacts with self-esteem to predict relationship-initiation motivation and behavior. However, because socially risky situations afford both rewards and costs, it is unclear which affordance is responsible for these effects. Two experiments primed social rewards or costs within different relationship-initiation contexts and then evaluated participants’ relationship-initiation motivation and behavior. Results revealed that global self-esteem regulates responses to both affordances. When social rewards were primed, lower self-esteem individuals (LSEs) exhibited stronger relationship-initiation motivation than higher self-esteem individuals (HSEs), whereas the reverse was true when social costs were primed. Furthermore, LSEs exhibited the strongest relationship-initiation motivation when rewards were primed, whereas HSEs exhibited the strongest relationship-initiation motivation and used more successful relationship-initiation behaviors when costs were primed. This pattern of results suggests a complex association between social affordances and self-esteem during relationship initiation that is not predicted or explained by current theoretical models and thus deserves further empirical attention.

Your Sociometer Is Telling You Something: How the Self-Esteem System Functions to Resolve Important Interpersonal Dilemmas

Sociometer theory contends that the self-esteem system is an evolved regulatory system aimed at helping people form and maintain high-quality social bonds that were and are essential for human survival. The motivational heart of the self-esteem system is the fundamental need to belong, which is a drive to form lasting and satisfying interpersonal attachments. We suggest that the self-esteem system accomplishes this essential task, in part, by providing answers to four pressing interpersonal dilemmas, each of which centers around relational value: (a) What is my relational value? (b) Should I believe social feedback about my relational value? (c) If my relational value is threatened, should I pursue connection or self-protection? (d) How can I judge the relational value of others before committing to a long-term bond? The self-esteem system helps to resolve these interpersonal dilemmas by monitoring the social world for cues that are relevant to each question and then signaling a response. In turn, the signals produced by the self-esteem system in response to each dilemma provoke motivation and behavior that service the need to belong. Thus, we suggest that the self-esteem system is a multifaceted drive system shaped by evolution to provide humans with the necessary tools to successfully navigate their social worlds.

The robust self-esteem proxy: Impressions of self-esteem inform judgments of personality and social value

Abstract People use impressions of an evaluative target’s self-esteem to infer their possession of socially desirable traits. But will people still use this self-esteem proxy when trait-relevant diagnostic information is available? We test this possibility in two experiments: participants learn that a target person has low or high self-esteem, and then receive diagnostic information about the target’s academic success or failure and positive or negative affectivity (Study 1), or watch a video of the target’s extraverted or introverted behavior (Study 2). In both experiments, participants’ impressions of the target’s traits accurately tracked diagnostic information, but impressions also revealed an independent self-esteem proxy effect. Evidently, the self-esteem proxy is robust and influences person perception even in the presence of vivid individuating information.

Self-Esteem, Epistemic Needs, and Responses to Social Feedback

Abstract People with lower self-esteem (LSEs) suffer from poor relational well-being. This may occur, in part, because LSEs’ epistemic needs constrain their ability to benefit from positive social feedback. Consistent with this hypothesis, LSEs felt undeserving of positive social feedback, which undermined their relational well-being (Experiment 1). After receiving positive social feedback, LSEs displayed an equal preference for additional positive and negative feedback, and their willingness to pursue negative feedback predicted poor well-being (Experiment 2). However, LSEs did seize the opportunity to pursue additional positive feedback about a domain of personal strength, and when they did so, their well-being benefited (Experiment 3). These results help explain chronic self-esteem differences in relational well-being and suggest avenues for future well-being interventions.