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Understanding self-affirmation effects: The moderating role of self-esteem
1Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
British Journal of Health Psychology
|February 28, 2021
Summary
Self-affirmation benefits health message acceptance for those with high self-esteem but can backfire for individuals with low self-esteem. This highlights the crucial role of self-esteem levels in tailoring health communication strategies.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Health Communication
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Self-affirmation is a strategy to reduce defensiveness towards health messages.
- The effectiveness of self-affirmation may be contingent on individual self-esteem levels.
- Existing theories provide conflicting hypotheses regarding the moderating role of self-esteem.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how self-esteem moderates the effects of self-affirmation on resistance to health messages.
- To test rival hypotheses concerning the interplay between self-esteem, self-affirmation type, and timing.
- To determine if self-affirmation is beneficial for all individuals or dependent on their self-esteem.
Main Methods:
- A between-subjects experimental design with 422 participants.
- Manipulation of self-affirmation type (value essay, attribute scale, control task) and timing (pre-message, post-message).
- Measurement of psychological discomfort, personal risk discounting, and message acceptance after exposure to a health risk message.
Main Results:
- Self-esteem significantly moderated self-affirmation effects.
- Participants with high self-esteem showed reduced discomfort and increased message acceptance after self-affirmation.
- Participants with low self-esteem exhibited increased discomfort and reduced message acceptance when self-affirmed.
Conclusions:
- Self-esteem acts as a resource for self-affirmation, enhancing its benefits for high self-esteem individuals.
- Self-affirmation interventions may be more effective for those with high self-esteem and potentially detrimental for those with low self-esteem.
- Caution is advised in generalizing findings due to the negative skew in self-esteem distribution in the sample.
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