The effects of self-esteem and evaluator demandingness on effort expenditure

The self-esteem of subjects was temporarily either raised or lowered by giving them false feedback on an alleged personality test. Subjects then participated in what they believed was a second, separate experiment in which they would engage in problem solving. Half the subjects in each self-esteem condition were led to believe that the evaluator of their problem-solving performance was difficult to please; the remainder, that he was easy to please. Subjects then committed themselves to expending effort in preparation for the problem-solving exercise. Based on a self-enhancement perspective derived from attributional principles, an interaction was predicted: High self-esteem subjects would plan to exert greater effort when the evaluator was demanding than when he was undemanding, whereas low self-esteem subjects would exert greater effort when the evaluator was undemanding. The results supported the hypothesis and are discussed with respect to consistency theory, as well as in the context of self-enhancement ideas.