title: Gender differences in implicit self-esteem following a romantic partner's success or failure.
abstract: This research examined the influence of a romantic partner's success or failure on one's own implicit and explicit self-esteem. In Experiment 1, men had lower implicit self-esteem when their partner did well at a "social intelligence" task than when their partner did poorly. Women's implicit self-esteem was unaffected by partner performance. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that Dutch men's implicit self-esteem was negatively affected by their romantic partner's success. In Experiment 4, we replicated Experiments 1-3 in both the academic and social domains, and in Experiment 5, we demonstrated that men's implicit self-esteem is negatively influenced by thinking about a romantic partner's success both when the success is relative and when it is not. In sum, men's implicit self-esteem is lower when a partner succeeds than when a partner fails, whereas women's implicit self-esteem is not. These gender differences have important implications for understanding social comparison in romantic relationships.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Florida.
authors.forename: Kate A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Ratliff
authors.forename: Shigehiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oishi
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008571:Men / Q000523:psychology*; D009426:Netherlands; D012649:Self Concept; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*