TY - JOUR
T1 - Compensatory Self-Inflation. A Response to the Threat to Self-Regard of Public Failure
AU - Greenberg, Jeff
AU - Pyszczynski, Tom
PY - 1985/7
Y1 - 1985/7
N2 - It was hypothesized that because public evaluative situations are most likely to encourage conditional self-regard, an overevaluation of self-image as a way to compensate for the threat of failure (compensatory self-inflation) is likely to occur if a failure is public but not if it is private. In a test of this idea, subjects either succeeded or failed on a test, and the outcome was either known or not known to others. Half of the subjects were subsequently required to evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the test. Then the favorability of self-image of all the subjects was assessed. The self-images of subjects who evaluated the test were not affected by the outcome manipulation. Compared with these subjects, among subjects who did not evaluate the test, favorability of self-image was increased after public failure and decreased after private failure. The hypothesis that compensatory self-inflation occurs after public but not private failure was confirmed.
AB - It was hypothesized that because public evaluative situations are most likely to encourage conditional self-regard, an overevaluation of self-image as a way to compensate for the threat of failure (compensatory self-inflation) is likely to occur if a failure is public but not if it is private. In a test of this idea, subjects either succeeded or failed on a test, and the outcome was either known or not known to others. Half of the subjects were subsequently required to evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the test. Then the favorability of self-image of all the subjects was assessed. The self-images of subjects who evaluated the test were not affected by the outcome manipulation. Compared with these subjects, among subjects who did not evaluate the test, favorability of self-image was increased after public failure and decreased after private failure. The hypothesis that compensatory self-inflation occurs after public but not private failure was confirmed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0001538152&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0001538152&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/0022-3514.49.1.273
DO - 10.1037/0022-3514.49.1.273
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001538152
SN - 0022-3514
VL - 49
SP - 273
EP - 280
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
IS - 1
ER -