The motivation to maintain favorable identities
The motivation to maintain favorable identities
Findings from research on self-enhancement and self-protection are generally understood to provide evidence for “motivated bias.” Despite their ubiquity, the meaning of “motivation,” “bias,” and “motivated bias” are usually left to intuition. In this article, we clarify the meaning of these terms as they apply to constructing and maintaining desired self-views. We argue that preserving psychological homeostasis (i.e., emotional equilibrium) is as important as preserving biological homeostasis, and indeed, that psychological and biological homeostasis are two aspects of one overarching balancing principle. We argue further that, although maintaining a favorable identity can sometimes lead to errors from normative models, the bias toward sustaining psychological homeostasis is just as adaptive as the bias toward sustaining a properly functioning physiology.
Alicke, Mark D.
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Sedikides, Constantine
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Zhang, Yiyue
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Alicke, Mark D.
f0e9afd2-1f51-4e6e-80d6-7a88421ac578
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
Zhang, Yiyue
f812509d-2a3c-41aa-8ba1-68210952d5a6
Alicke, Mark D., Sedikides, Constantine and Zhang, Yiyue
(2019)
The motivation to maintain favorable identities.
Self and Identity.
(doi:10.1080/15298868.2019.1640786).
Abstract
Findings from research on self-enhancement and self-protection are generally understood to provide evidence for “motivated bias.” Despite their ubiquity, the meaning of “motivation,” “bias,” and “motivated bias” are usually left to intuition. In this article, we clarify the meaning of these terms as they apply to constructing and maintaining desired self-views. We argue that preserving psychological homeostasis (i.e., emotional equilibrium) is as important as preserving biological homeostasis, and indeed, that psychological and biological homeostasis are two aspects of one overarching balancing principle. We argue further that, although maintaining a favorable identity can sometimes lead to errors from normative models, the bias toward sustaining psychological homeostasis is just as adaptive as the bias toward sustaining a properly functioning physiology.
Text
Alicke Sedikides Zhang 2019 Self and Identitypure
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 2 July 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 July 2019
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 432394
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/432394
ISSN: 1529-8868
PURE UUID: ca7910fd-95ce-41ef-a691-4bf829d08f5f
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Date deposited: 12 Jul 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 08:00
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Author:
Mark D. Alicke
Author:
Yiyue Zhang
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