The Role of Perceived Similarity in the Efficacy of Self-Esteem Maintenance Strategies for Introverts and Extraverts

Abstract

Self-esteem is an important predictor for many life outcomes, both good and bad (Baumeister et al., 2003; Swann et al., 2007). A number of self-enhancement strategies used to boost self-esteem can generally be placed into two categories, social or non-socially based strategies (Vaughan-Johnston et al., 2021). Two socially-based strategies are Basking-in-Reflected-Glory (BIRG), which is the tendency to associate oneself with successful others to link that success to themselves (Cialdini et al., 1976), and downward social comparison (DSC), where people compare their performance or results to others who are less successful than themselves to feel better about their own performance (Wills, 1981). One of the things that is not well known about self-enhancement strategies are the factors that regulate their use and efficacy. Vaughan-Johnston et al., (2021) found that both introverts and extraverts benefited equally from BIRGing and that extroverts benefited more from DSC after a failure than introverts did. They found some evidence that extraverts benefitted more from DSC because they perceived greater similarity to their peers than introverts did. I tested the role of perceived peer similarity in the efficacy of BIRGing and DSC. In Study One, I was unable to replicate any of Vaughan-Johnston et al.’s (2021) key effects and unable to demonstrate the novel effects when consideration of similarity and dissimilarity was prompted. I was also unable to replicate Vaughan-Johnston et al.’s (2021) key effects and any novel effects in Study Two. I will discuss the implications, possible reasons why the key effects failed to replicate, and future directions.