On Claiming the Good and Denying the Bad: Self-Presentation Styles and Self-Esteem

Two studies investigated the relationship between self-esteem and two forms of active, favorable self-presentation: attributive (claiming desirable characteristics) and repudiative (denying negative characteristics). In a pilot study, participants (N= 122) lower in self-esteem were equally likely to deny possessing negative personality characteristics to a new acquaintance as those higher in self-esteem, but were less likely to claim possessing desirable characteristics. In the main study (N= 52), participants lower in self-esteem were equally likely to compensate for a negative public image by denying they possessed negative characteristics unrelated to that image as those higher in self-esteem (i.e., compensatory self-protection). However, only those very high in self-esteem compensated for the negative public image by claiming unrelated desirable characteristics.