Self-Verification Theory

Seeking Self-Verifying Settings and Partners

Considerable evidence supports self-verification theory. In one study, researchers asked participants with positive and negative self-views whether they would prefer to interact with evaluators who had favorable or unfavorable impressions of them. Not surprisingly, those with positive self-views preferred favorable partners, but contrary to self-enhancement theory, those with negative self-views preferred unfavorable partners.

Many replications of this effect using diverse methods have confirmed that people prefer self-verifying evaluations and interaction partners. Both men and women display this propensity, even if their self-views [Page 850]happen to be negative. Moreover, it does not matter whether the self-views refer to characteristics that are relatively immutable (e.g., intelligence) or changeable (e.g., diligence), whether the self-views happen to be highly specific (e.g., athletic) or global (e.g., low selfesteem, worthless), or whether the self-views refer to the individual's personal qualities (e.g., assertive) or group memberships (e.g., Democrat). Furthermore, when people choose negative partners over positive ones, they do not do so merely to avoid positive evaluators (out of a concern that they might disappoint them). To the contrary, people choose negative partners even when the alternative is participating in a different experiment.

Just as self-verification strivings influence the contexts people enter initially, so too do they influence whether or not people remain in particular contexts. Research on married couples, college roommates, and dating partners show that people gravitate toward partners who provide verification and drift away from those who do not. For instance, just as people with positive self-views withdraw (either psychologically or through divorce or separation) from spouses who perceive them unfavorably, people with negative self-views withdraw from spouses who perceive them favorably. Similarly, the more positively college students with firmly held negative self-views are perceived by their roommates, the more inclined they are to plan to find a new roommate (students with positive self-views displayed the opposite pattern). Finally, self-views determine how people react to the implicit evaluations conveyed by the salaries they receive. In one study examining selfesteem and job turnover, among people with high selfesteem, turnover was greatest among those who failed to receive raises; for people with low self-esteem, turnover was greatest among people who did receive raises. Apparently, people gravitate toward relationships and settings that provide them with evaluations that confirm their self-views.

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