Self-Esteem, Compensatory Self-Enhancement, and the Consideration of Health Risk
- 1 August 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Vol. 25 (8) , 954-965
- https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672992511004
Abstract
Acknowledging that one engages in risk-increasing behavior is a form of self-generated negative feedback that can engender self-protective responses. This experiment examined the use of one of these reactions, compensatory self-enhancement, following a manipulation that made high and low self-esteem participants explicitly consider their sexual risk behaviors. Participants with high (but not low) self-esteem responded to the manipulation by self-enhancing on both personality ratings and ratings of their contraceptive behavior. Positive self-ratings on personality traits were negatively associated with subsequent ratings of perceived vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases.Keywords
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