A cross-cultural analysis of self-verification motives

This chapter aims to assess the likelihood that self-verification is a culture general phenomenon. With respect to social feedback in particular, people are motivated both to receive positive feedback about themselves and to receive feedback that is consistent with their self-beliefs. The process of self-verification requires identification of the self-attribute contained in the feedback, accessing stored beliefs about one's self-attributes and comparing these self-attributes. The process has complex conditional rules for approaching and avoiding feedback than does self-evaluation, which, in turn, means that self-verification requires additional mental work. A variety of motivational implications of this difference in mental effort is highlighted, such as the effects of depriving people of cognitive resources or manipulating the accessibility or certainty of people's self-beliefs. The extension of the roots of self-verification to cultures outside of North America and what form self-verification strivings would take in these cultures are discussed. Self-verification strivings are universal, although cross-cultural differences in conceptions of the self may result in cultural variation in the ways they are pursued.