Effects of trait self-esteem and self-evaluation threat on the appraisal of close friends

Abstract

People with low self-esteem, when experiencing a threat to self-evaluation, reportedly tend to place higher value in a romantic partner as an indirect form of self-enhancement. This study examined whether such an indirect form of self-enhancement is also found when considering a close friend. Participants' trait self-esteem was measured. Then, they participated in an experiment in which they experienced (or not) a threat to their self-evaluation. They were subsequently asked to evaluate their close friends and acquaintances using trait adjectives. The results showed that participants with low self-esteem valued their close friends and acquaintances highly when they experienced a threat, compared with those who did not experience one. Meanwhile, participants with high self-esteem devalued their close friends but not their acquaintances when they experienced a threat, compared with those who did not. These results suggest that people with high self-esteem devalue their close friends as an indirect form of self-enhancement. We discuss the need to examine the effects of the difference in relationship quality between a close friend and a romantic partner, as well as the cross-cultural differences in indirect forms of self-enhancement.

Exploring the adaptive role of core social motives in perceived societal threats

“…Although ample evidence has shown the moderator roles of self‐esteem in Asia, involving both behavioural and neural data (e.g., Guan et al., 2020; E. S. Kashima et al., 2004; Onoda et al., 2010; Routledge et al., 2010, Study 5; Shimoda & Okubo, 2019; Yanagisawa et al., 2016), cross‐cultural investigations of these roles have been limited. Brockner and Chen (1996) found that high self‐esteem individuals’ self‐bolstering was more robust in the United States than in China when self‐construal was ignored; however, when the latter was taken into consideration, this cultural difference was no longer evident.…”