High self-esteem is associated with biases in
which the person overestimates their positivity, whereas low self-esteem is
associated with underestimations of one’s positivity. The current study
examined whether these biases emerge more strongly when self-regulation is
impaired. Participants first completed a task that either did or did not require
self-regulation. They later interacted with another participant and indicated
the extent to which they viewed themselves as having behaved positively during
the interaction and to which the other participant viewed them positively.
Higher self-esteem predicted a greater bias in overestimating the extent to
which the other person viewed one positively, but this relationship was the strongest
among participants who had completed the self-regulatory task. Past work has
found that self-regulating impairs self- regulation later on. These findings
therefore suggest that self-regulation is a mechanism through which personal biases are avoided and moderate views are
maintained.
Cite this paper
Gailliot, M. T. and Zell, A. L. (2014). Self-Regulation to Maintain Moderate Self-Views: Prior Self-Regulation Increases Biases Related to Self-Esteem. Open Access Library Journal, 1, e1018. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1101018.
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