Seeking Self-Evaluative Feedback: The Interactive Role of Global Self-Esteem and Specific Self-Views

People who verify a negative self-view expose themselves to criticism and rejection. Because people with low global self-esteem are hurt more by negative feedback than are people with high global selfesteem, the authors predicted that they would be less apt to verify a negative self-view in a more specific domain. Three investigations found support for this hypothesis. In all 3 investigations, high self-esteem participants sought (or tended to seek) self-verifying feedback, even if it was negative, but low self-esteem participants sought (or tended to seek) positive feedback, even if it was nonselfverifying. These findings show that low self-esteem people are especially concerned with selfprotection and that global self-esteem and specific self-views interact to guide peopleʹs responses to self-evaluative feedback