Three studies provide evidence that people with low self-esteem, but not those with high self-esteem, distance themselves from a flawed partner in situations in which the flaws seem likely to reflect negatively on them. Participants with low (but not high) self-esteem reduced their motivation to care for the partner's needs when they felt they might share a partner's salient flaws (Study 1), when they were primed to focus on similarities between themselves and a socially devalued partner (Study 2), and when they learned that their partner was socially incompetent (Study 3). In Study 3, individuals with low (but not high) self-esteem provided less emotional support and experienced more public image threat when they learned that partners were socially incompetent. In addition, all three studies provided evidence that participants' distancing reduced their confidence in the partner's motivation to care for them, suggesting that distancing involves a cost to the self.
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