Self-Esteem, Compensatory Self-Enhancement, and the Consideration of Health Risk

Abstract

Acknowledging that one engages in risk-increasing behavior is a form of self-generated negative feedback that can engender self-protective responses. This experiment examined the use of one of these reactions, compensatory self-enhancement, following a manipulation that made high and low self-esteem participants explicitly consider their sexual risk behaviors. Participants with high (but not low) self-esteem responded to the manipulation by self-enhancing on both personality ratings and ratings of their contraceptive behavior. Positive self-ratings on personality traits were negatively associated with subsequent ratings of perceived vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases.