Basking in reflected glory

Examples of BIRGing include anything from sharing a home state with a past or present famous person, to religious affiliations, to sports teams.

[1] BIRGing has connections to social identity theory, which explains how self-esteem and self-evaluation can be enhanced by the identification with another person's success through basking in reflected glory that is not earned.

High self-esteem is typically a perception of oneself as attractive, competent, likeable, and a morally good person.

[7] BIRGing is a widespread and important impression management technique to counter any threats to self-esteem and to maintain positive relations with others.

The first experiment demonstrated BIRGing by showing that students have a greater tendency to wear apparel with the university's colors and name after the football team had won a game.

The third experiment replicated the finding that students used the pronoun "we" more when describing a victory compared to a non-victory by their school's football team.

In Bernhardt et al.'s study published in 1998,[11] researchers examined physiological processes related to BIRGing, specifically, changes in the production of endocrine hormones.

They examined houses with at least a poster or lawn sign supporting a political candidate days before elections in Belgium.

These empirical studies show how even in controlled situations, people unconsciously seek acceptance by associating themselves with successful individuals.

Whether this is accomplished by wearing brand names or parents covering their car with stickers about how talented their child is,[5] BIRGing has been found in both the naturalistic and experimental setting.

Although Cialdini's studies introduced the concept of BIRGing to the public and its relevance to social psychology, an operational definition is quite difficult to form.

Rather, by a classical definition, it is more described as a subjective feeling possessed by one individual who seeks to gain acceptance or respect by associating themselves with the successes of others.

[14] Contemporary BIRGing in today's world can be seen by individuals not only associating themselves with the success of other people or groups, as was originally thought by Cialdini and others, but also with companies, businesses, or activities that are perceived as popular or highly regarded.

In contemporary psychology, survival of the fittest applies to achieving the greatest successes possible in order to ensure the passage of one's genes into future generations.

This can be seen in BIRGing as individuals associate themselves with popular, attractive, or respected actions and people in order to be perceived as having more successes.

Another equally important contributing influence is deindividuation, a psychological state characterized by partial or complete loss of self-awareness, diffused responsibility, and decreased concern about our own behavior.

States and cities list the names of famous entertainers, political candidates, beauty contest winners, etc.

People associate with certain companies and schools in order to establish a connection to individuals or groups that represent these organizations.

Extra real-world examples: Nationalism relates heavily to the idea of BIRGing in events like the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games.

Throughout the year, a person may be less inclined to watch "unusual sports", but as the entire world invests in the Olympics, it gives those an opportunity to tune in for the sake of their countries.

[citation needed] Pronouns play a significant role in BIRGing and CORFing and can help distinguish the two behaviors instantly.

[19] Author John S.W Spinda conducted research studying the differences between how males and females react to their NFL team's outcomes.

From the study: However, when male and female participants were separately analyzed, noteworthy differences were found in both the BIRGing and CORFing constructs.

The classical definition of BIRGing describes it as a subjective feeling possessed by one individual who seeks to gain acceptance or respect by associating themselves with the successes of others.