Bragging and Grandiosity

Bragging and Status

A brag is not regularly measured by the words spoken. A speaker's claim to have purchased a new car, for example, is merely a claim of fact, but it can be interpreted as a brag, depending [Page 92]on the occasion, the audience, and the tone of voice, and so forth. Conceived as an attempt to claim or raise status, the dynamics governing bragging fall into place. One can hypothesize, for example, that bragging will be less tolerated among equals in contexts in which social status and mobility are comparatively rigid, such as classrooms and organizations. On the other hand, where status and mobility are flexible, bragging tends to be better tolerated, such as within competitive sports, where one can win “bragging rights” by advancing to a higher competitive level or by winning a game. Similarly, toddlers who brag about height, skill development, and even the quality of a bowel movement find their announcements well-received and congratulated, for the infant is obligated to a long period of status development.

Nevertheless, because social resources are finite, audiences regularly respond with trepidation to the bragger's attempt to raise status and with envy of the bragger's claim to new status. Bragging's effect is best understood by imagining the words “I am better than you because …” prior to the boast, for it is a reminder that the one who is most sensitive to the brag is the one who feels a threat in it, a threat not felt by people who are far outside the status of the bragger. Neither a millionaire nor a vagrant, for example, will experience much more than boredom if a plumber brags that he averages $200 for each house call; but another plumber who averages $130 for his house calls will feel the bitter sting of lost status in the bragger's words.

When the brag is discovered as a lie, the resentment is even greater because the brag in that case is patently recognized as an attempt to steal status. The dynamic relationship between bragging and resentment is well delivered in the Barry Levinson film Envy (2004), in which a 3M worker becomes unbearably envious and resentful of his friend and coworker's successful get-rich-quick invention.

In Western culture, for century upon century, the virtue of humiltas, a caution against bragging, has been set forth as a quality of the refined in character. Similarly, in the East, ch'ien, commonly translated as “modesty,” takes a similar position. In this parallel, a cross-cultural disposition can be detected against bragging that is intimately connected with the preservation of established hierarchies, a broadly distributed disposition against bragging that is organized around the dissuading aphorism “know your place.” Thus, when a bragger is referred to as “uppity,” the status ambition implicit in the phrase should not be overlooked. The corollary for humiltas was another virtue known as magnanimitas, which meant an awareness of one's greatness. For the devout of the medieval tradition, this was a greatness grounded in their relationship with Christ. The “Christ loves me” expression has repeatedly played a role in social revolutions because it provides a logic from within which the oppressed can be in solidarity with a claim of higher status than the oppressor. Among the nobility, the term magnanimitas was self-referential, rather than exclusively Christ-directed, and is well-illustrated by Louis XIV's well known articulation, l'état, c'est moi (the state, it is I).

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