Basking in Reflected Glory

Overview

Basking in reflected glory is an indirect image-maintenance strategy, where individuals attempt to secure prestige in the eyes of another due to their relationship with a positively evaluated other. In 1976, Robert Cialdini and colleagues conducted three field experiments that provided empirical support for the BIRGing phenomenon. In one study, the researchers found that undergraduate students were more likely to wear their university's regalia after the football team experienced a win rather than a loss. In the subsequent two studies, undergraduate students were more likely to use the pronoun we to describe their football team's success than its failure. This tendency was most pronounced following a threat to the participant's self-esteem. The researchers suggest that these findings indicate that the tendency to BIRG is motivated by the desire for positive self-presentation.

The theoretical foundations of the phenomenon can be understood in reference to Fritz Heider's balance formulation. The theory proposes that persons strive to maintain cognitive consistency; as such, when two objects are perceived to be connected, the evaluations of one are extended to the other. For example, if an observer perceives a positive relationship between an individual and a positively evaluated source, to keep cognitive balance, the observer will evaluate the individual positively as well. Following a victory, when the football team was perceived as a successful source, the students publicized their affiliation. By wearing university regalia and by utilizing the pronoun we, the students were accentuating their connection with the positive image of the university's football team to enhance their own image.

Subsequent Research and Theorizing

The basic tenet of the BIRG strategy, that individuals use affiliations with others as a means of managing self-image, has been extended in a variety of ways, all consistent with the links proposed by Heider's balance theory.

Just as the positive evaluations of another can be extended to the self, it is possible for negative evaluations of an affiliated source to occur. For example, in addition to basking in the success of another, where individuals seek to increase their connection, individuals may increase the distance between themselves and an unsuccessful other. When an individual is affiliated with a negatively evaluated source, he or she may actively seek to cut off associations with that source as a means of self-protection. This increased distancing behavior has been labeled cutting of reflected failure, or CORFing for short. Studies using self-report and behavioral measures have demonstrated that individuals will detach themselves from negatively evaluated individuals or groups as a way to preserve their own image. CORFing can thus be understood as a protective motive, whereas BIRGing reflects an enhancement motive.

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