Agreeable fancy or disagreeable truth? Reconciling self-enhancement and self-verification

Three studies asked why people sometimes seek positive feedback (self-enhance) and sometimes seek subjectively accurate feedback (self-verify). Consistent with self-enhancement theory, people with low self-esteem as well as those with high self-esteem indicated that they preferred feedback pertain-ing to their positive rather than negative self-views. Consistent with self-verification theory, the very people who sought favorable feedback pertaining to their positive self-conceptions sought unfavor-able feedback pertaining to their negative self-views, regardless of their level of global self-esteem. Apparently, although all people prefer to seek feedback regarding their positive self-views, when they seek feedback regarding their negative self-views, they seek unfavorable feedback. Whether people self-enhance or self-verify thus seems to be determined by the positivity of the relevant self-concep-tions rather than their level of self-esteem or the type of person they are. You will find that the truth is often unpopular and the contest be-tween agreeable fancy and disagreeable fact is unequal. For, in the vernacular, we Americans are all suckers for good news. (Steven-son, 1958, p. 17) Man's passion for truth is such that he will welcome the bitteres