SELF-PROMOTE OR SELF-EFFACE?: STRATEGIC COORDINATION OF SELF-ASSESSMENT BIASES WITH BEHAVIORAL STRATEGIES

Self-promotion—signaling to oneself or others that one has more social value or bargaining power than one actually does—can maximize one’s claim to social benefits such as status and influence. However, since people often dislike self-promoters and prefer those who self-efface, engaging in self-promotion can be costly. The current research applies error management logic to develop hypotheses about the coordination of self-assessment biases in socially valued traits with personality strategies. For individuals pursuing a strategy organized around acquiring status and resources, it is less costly to err on the side of self-promotion. For individuals motivated by the avoidance of social threats, self-effacement is the less costly error. To test these ideas, we used three data sets (N = 721) containing measures of subjects’ (1) biases in self-assessment of physical strength and attractiveness (using objective measures and self-assessments), and (2) variation in behavioral strategies. Consistent with hypotheses, self-promotional biases predicted behavioral strategies organized around status acquisition (e.g., high Extraversion, high Personal Sense of Power, low Honesty-Humility). Additionally, behavioral strategies associated with threat avoidance (e.g., high Fearfulness) tended to self-efface. These findings suggest that self-evaluative biases are functionally coordinated, per error management logic, with strategic behavioral variation