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Related Experiment Videos

Defensive pride and consensus: strength in imaginary numbers.

Ian McGregor1, Paul R Nail, Denise C Marigold

  • 1Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada. ianmc@yorku.ca

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|January 6, 2006
PubMed
Summary
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Defensively proud individuals, experiencing failure or separation threats, overestimate social consensus to protect themselves. This compensatory consensus acts as a psychological defense mechanism, reducing distressing thoughts and bolstering self-worth.

Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Self-Esteem Research
  • Attachment Theory

Background:

  • Individuals often seek to maintain a positive self-view.
  • Defensive pride, characterized by specific self-esteem and attachment profiles, plays a role in psychological defense.
  • Understanding how individuals cope with threats to self-worth is crucial in social psychology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the 'compensatory consensus effect' where individuals exaggerate social consensus.
  • To examine the role of defensive pride, including self-esteem and attachment styles, in this effect.
  • To explore how compensatory consensus functions as a defensive self-affirmation strategy.

Main Methods:

  • Four studies were conducted, employing scenarios of failure and attachment separation.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Participants' explicit and implicit self-esteem, attachment avoidance and anxiety, and narcissism were assessed.
  • Exaggerated consensus estimates for personal beliefs and worldview defense were measured.
  • The subjective salience of troubling thoughts was evaluated.

    • Main Results:

    • Experiencing failure or separation threats led to exaggerated consensus estimates for unrelated personal beliefs.
    • This effect was strongest in defensively proud individuals (high explicit/low implicit self-esteem; high attachment avoidance/low anxiety).
    • Narcissism correlated with exaggerated consensual worldview defense following system-injustice threats.
    • Imagined consensus reduced the impact of distressing thoughts for proud individuals.

    Conclusions:

    • Compensatory consensus serves as a defensive self-affirmation strategy.
    • Defensively proud individuals utilize exaggerated social consensus to insulate themselves from distressing thoughts.
    • This research highlights a unique coping mechanism employed by individuals with specific self-esteem and attachment profiles.