Emotions and Identity Nonverification

When individuals’ identities are not verified, most theories and research suggest that they feel bad when others evaluate them more negatively than how they see themselves. It is less clear whether they feel good or bad when others evaluate them more positively than how they see themselves. We examine people’s emotional reactions to nonverifying feedback across seven studies that include both a survey and a laboratory component. In the survey, individuals feel a little better when others slightly overrate them (an enhancement effect). In both the survey and laboratory, individuals also feel bad for being highly overrated (a consistency effect), and this consistency effect overpowers the enhancement effect. The consistency effect emerges when we measure: (1) individuals’ identity meanings, (2) their responses to how they think others see them (reflected appraisals), and (3) the meanings in the situation that are relevant to an individual’s identity (identity-relevant situational meanings).