The fleeting gleam of praise: cognitive processes underlying behavioral reactions to self-relevant feedback.
We propose that a preference for favorable social feedback (i.e., self-enhancement) requires only that feedback be characterized as favorable or unfavorable but that a preference for self-confirming feedback (i.e., self-verification) is based on a more elaborate set of cognitive operations that requires both the characterization of feedback and a subsequent comparison of that feedback to a representation of self stored in memory. Study 1 set the stage for testing this hypothesis by showing that depriving people of processing resources interfered with their tendency to access their self-conceptions. In Studies 2 and 3, participants who were deprived of resources preferred the favorable, self-enhancing evaluator, whereas control participants displayed a preference for the self-verifying evaluator, even if that evaluator was relatively unfavorable.
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin 78712.
W B
WB
Swann
J G
JG
Hixon
A
A
Stein-Seroussi
D T
DT
Gilbert
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012649:Self Concept