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ego
Reflecting on your values can undo your defensiveness.
A 1988 study found that when people wrote about a personal value, they were more likely to accept information that previously threatened their self-view.
Self-affirmation theory demonstrates that when you feel secure about your core identity, you no longer need to distort facts to defend your ego.
You become more rational when you feel secure about who you are.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Steele, 1988, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
- What the check found
- Steele's 1988 paper, 'The Psychology of Self-Affirmation', is the foundation for this paradigm. The claim accurately reflects the theory's core mechanism, even if the provided reference text lacks the specific experimental detail.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.