Self‐Presentational Tactics of Talk‐Show Guests: A Comparison of Politicians, Experts, and Entertainers¹

Politicians' self‐presentation on German television talk shows was compared to that of entertainers and of experts. It was found that politicians used more exemplification than did any other group and more self‐promotion than entertainers but less than experts. Ingratiation was broken down into 3 components: modesty, self‐disclosure, and favorable self‐description. Favorable self‐description did not differ across groups. Modesty was found to be more frequent in entertainers than in any other group; self‐disclosure was most frequent in entertainers, and second in politicians. Evidence suggests that depending on group status, either modesty or favorable self‐description is used to create the impression of likability. Supplication and intimidation did not occur in any of the 3 groups. Implications of these results are discussed with relation to public political discourse and self‐presentation theory.