People alter their self-concepts by incorporating attributes of close others, such as desired romantic partners, into their own identity. The current research examined self-esteem as a moderator of this spontaneous self-expansion. Two studies tested the hypothesis that when presented with a prospective romantic partner, higher self-esteem people (HSE) would self-expand to adopt positive attributes, while lower self-esteem people (LSE) would self-expand to adopt negative attributes. This tendency corresponds with people’s desire to self-verify and be seen by others in line with their own self-views, which are often negative among those lower in self-esteem. Study 1 (n = 218) and Study 2 (n = 234) confirmed our predictions that when motivated to increase romantic closeness to a prospective partner, self-esteem differentially predicts people’s spontaneous self-expansion to adopt positive versus negative attributes.
AlickeM.SedikidesC. (2009). Self-enhancement and self-protection: What they are and what they do. European Review of Social Psychology, 20, 1–48.
2.
AronA. (2003). Self and close relationships. In LearyM. R.TangneyJ. P. (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 442–461). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
3.
AronA.AronE. N. (1997). Self-expansion motivation and including other in the self. In DuckS. (Ed.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research, and interventions (2nd ed., pp. 251–270). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
4.
AronA.AronE. N.TudorM.NelsonG. (1991). Close relationships as including other in the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 241–253.
5.
BaumeisterR. F. (2010). The self. In BaumeisterR. F.FinkelE. J. (Eds.), Advances in social psychology: The state of the science (pp. 139–175). London, England: Oxford University Press.
6.
BaumeisterR. F.CampbellJ. D.KruegerJ. I.VohsK. D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles?Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4, 1–44.
7.
BuhrmesterM.KwangT.GoslingS. D. (2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk a new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data?Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3–5.
8.
CampbellJ. D. (1990). Self-esteem and clarity of the self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(3), 538–549.
9.
CohenJ.CohenP.WestS. G.AikenL. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis in the behavioral sciences (3rd ed., p. 76). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
10.
ForestA. L.WoodJ. V. (2012). When social networking is not working: Individuals with low self-esteem recognize but do not reap the benefits of self-disclosure on Facebook. Psychological Science, 23, 295–302.
11.
JamesW. (1890). The principles of psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12.
KatzJ.BeachS. R. (2000). Looking for love? Self-verification and self-enhancement effects on initial romantic attraction. Personality and Social Psychology, 26, 1526–1539.
13.
KwangT.SwannW. B.Jr (2010). Do people embrace praise even when they feel unworthy? A review of critical tests of self-enhancement versus self-verification. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14, 263–280.
14.
MarshallS.ParkerP. D.CiarrochiJ.SahdraB. K.JacksonC. J.HeavenP. C. (2015). Self-compassion protects against the negative effects of low self-esteem: a longitudinal study in a large adolescent sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 74, 116–121.
15.
MashekD.StuewigJ.FurukawaE.TangneyJ. (2006). Psychological and behavioral implications of connectedness to communities with opposing values and beliefs. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 25, 404–428.
16.
MattinglyB. A.LewandowskiG. W.McIntyreK. P. (2014). “You make me a better/worse person”: A two-dimensional model of relationship self-change. Personal Relationships, 21, 176–190.
17.
McConnellA. R. (2011). The multiple self-aspects framework: Self-concept representation and its implications. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 3–27.
18.
MurrayS. L.DerrickJ. L.LederS.HolmesJ. G. (2008). Balancing connectedness and self-protection goals in close relationships: A levels-of-processing perspective on risk regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 429–459.
19.
MurrayS. L.GriffinD. W.RoseP.BellaviaG. (2003). Calibrating the sociometer: The relational contingencies of self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 63–84.
20.
MurrayS. L.HolmesJ. G.CollinsN. L. (2006). Optimizing assurance: The risk regulation system in relationships. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 641–666.
21.
NeffK. D. (2012). The science of self-compassion. In GermerC. K.SiegelR. D. (Eds.), Compassion and wisdom in psychotherapy (pp. 79–92). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
22.
RichmanS.SlotterE. B.GardnerW. L.DeWallC. N. (2015). Reaching out by changing what’s within: Social exclusion predicts self-concept malleability. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 64–77.
23.
RosenbergM. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
24.
SlotterE. B. (2016, December31). Pre-registration of self-esteem and spontaneous self-expansion. Retrieved from osf.io/678hp
25.
SlotterE. B.EmeryL. F. (2018). On the rebound: Self-concept malleability and the tendency to engage in rebound relationships predict self-concept clarity. Personal Relationships.
26.
SlotterE. B.GardnerW. L. (2009). Where do you end and I begin? Evidence for anticipatory, motivated self-other integration between relationship partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 1137–1151.
27.
SlotterE. B.GardnerW. L. (2012). The dangers of dating the “bad boy” (or girl): Romantic desire encourages the adoption of even negative qualities of potential partners. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 1173–1178.
28.
SlotterE. B.LucasG. M. (2013). Validating a scale of self and partner change in romantic relationships: The Perceived Change in Relationships Scale. Self and Identity, 12, 177–185.
29.
StinsonD. A.LogelC.HolmesJ. G.WoodJ. V.ForestA.GaucherD.…KathJ. (2010). The regulatory function of self-esteem: Testing the acceptance and epistemic signaling systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 993–1013.
30.
SwannW. B.Jr (1983). Self-verification: Bringing social reality into harmony with the self. In SulsJ.GreenwaldA. G. (Eds.), Social psychological perspectives on the self (Vol. 2, pp. 33–66). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
31.
SwannW. B.Jr (1990). To be adored or to be known: The interplay of self-enhancement and self-verification. In SorrentinoR. M.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Foundations of social behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 408–448). New York, NY: Guilford.
32.
SwannW. B.JrHixonJ. G.De La RondeC. (1992). Embracing the bitter truth: Negative self-concepts and marital commitment. Psychological Science, 3, 118–121.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
