[3][4] Self-affirmation theory contends that if individuals reflect on values that are personally relevant to them, they are less likely to experience distress and react defensively when confronted with information that contradicts or threatens their sense of self.
Self-affirmation theory suggests that when individuals face threat to one of these domains, they are motivated to maintain a positive global image of themselves.
Examples of defensive reactions include denial, avoiding the threat, and changing one's appraisal of the event in order to make it less threatening.
Engaging in such actions when facing threat serves to remind individuals of the broad, principal values by which they define themselves and their lives.
It is thought that when people operate from this broader perspective, they react less defensively to the threat, which allows them to act more effectively.
Taken together, the four principles suggest that when confronted with information that threatens self-concept, the person experiences distress and is subsequently motivated to self-defense.
[6] However, the defensive reaction can impede more adaptive ways to solve the problem (like engaging in problem-solving or changing unhealthy behaviors).
It is thought that affirming an important value unrelated to the threat helps individuals to shift their perspective to their broader life context.
Having a broad viewpoint diminishes the perceived threat, allowing individuals to act less defensively and more effectively.
Extant empirical research demonstrates that self-affirmations can be beneficial in reducing individuals' stress response as well as their defensiveness toward threats.
Following the speech, participants must complete a mental arithmetic task, in which they count backwards from 2,083 in increments of 13 while being told by the judges to go faster.
[10] In a different experiment, undergraduate students completed difficult problem solving puzzles in the presence of an evaluator.
[11] For another experiment, undergraduates were recruited to participate in a research study two weeks prior to completing a mid-term exam.
Participants who did not complete the self-affirmation condition demonstrated increased catecholamine response from baseline to their midterm exam.
Results from studies provide support for the idea that when individuals complete an activity that affirms their self-integrity they are less defensive and more accepting of information that is potentially threatening.
[15][16] Similarly, values affirmation decreased the achievement gap for college students from low socioeconomic status[17] and for women in introductory physics courses.
Self-affirmed participants had lost more weight, had lower body mass index, and smaller waist circumference than non-affirmed women.
[21] Individualist and collectivist cultures place different levels of importance on belonging to in-groups, and it is thought that this may vary the effects of self-affirmation.
The authors found reduced cognitive dissonance for participants from collectivist cultures who wrote about values important to them and their families, and found reduced cognitive dissonance for participants from individualist cultures who wrote about a value important to just them.
[3] To date, increasing positive emotions and self-esteem have been investigated as mechanisms of self-affirmation, but the findings are mixed.