The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Taking on board liability-focused information: close positive relationships as a self-bolstering resource

Taking on board liability-focused information: close positive relationships as a self-bolstering resource
Taking on board liability-focused information: close positive relationships as a self-bolstering resource
Do close positive relationships function as a self-bolstering resource, armoring the self against potentially threatening information? After taking a difficult and important intellectual ability test, participants visualized a relationship that was close positive, close negative, or neutral (Experiment 1) or a relationship that was close positive, close negative, distant positive, or distant negative (Experiment 2). All participants received bogus unfavorable feedback about their performance and subsequently indicated their interest in obtaining further liability-focused information about the performance domain and the underlying intellectual ability. Participants who visualized close positive relationships expressed the highest interest in receiving such information, despite rating it as unpleasant. State self-esteem and mood did not account for this effect, although warm affect for the relational partner did. Close positive relationships function as a psychological resource that bolsters the self against feedback about a newly discovered liability to the point where receptivity to additional liability-relevant information actually increases.
0956-7976
732-739
Kumashiro, Madoka
53c2b236-13b5-4a03-acf3-7ee6b0e34ec1
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Kumashiro, Madoka
53c2b236-13b5-4a03-acf3-7ee6b0e34ec1
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2

Kumashiro, Madoka and Sedikides, Constantine (2005) Taking on board liability-focused information: close positive relationships as a self-bolstering resource. Psychological Science, 16 (9), 732-739. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01603.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Do close positive relationships function as a self-bolstering resource, armoring the self against potentially threatening information? After taking a difficult and important intellectual ability test, participants visualized a relationship that was close positive, close negative, or neutral (Experiment 1) or a relationship that was close positive, close negative, distant positive, or distant negative (Experiment 2). All participants received bogus unfavorable feedback about their performance and subsequently indicated their interest in obtaining further liability-focused information about the performance domain and the underlying intellectual ability. Participants who visualized close positive relationships expressed the highest interest in receiving such information, despite rating it as unpleasant. State self-esteem and mood did not account for this effect, although warm affect for the relational partner did. Close positive relationships function as a psychological resource that bolsters the self against feedback about a newly discovered liability to the point where receptivity to additional liability-relevant information actually increases.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2005

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 40227
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/40227
ISSN: 0956-7976
PURE UUID: d801c783-dfc9-48fe-9da7-9f8926cd3fa0
ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Jul 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:08

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Madoka Kumashiro

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×