338 The Social Self
to think that they come across the same way to everyone, but
they do not.
Baumeister, Hutton, and Tice (1989) studied the cognitive
processes behind self-presentation. In this study, subjects
were interviewed in pairs. An experimenter instructed one
member of each pair to self-present in either a modest or a self-
enhancing fashion. After the interview, subjects were given
surprise recall tests for both their own and their partners’ self-
presentations, as well as for their impressions of their part-
ners. Subjects who had been instructed to be modest and
self-effacing showed impaired memory for the interaction.
Apparently, acting modestly (which is an unusual way to act
with strangers) causes greater cognitive load and interferes
with the memory storage process during the interaction. In ad-
dition, subjects seemed unaware of the influence they had on
others (see Gilbert & Jones, 1986). Thus, for example, if John
presents himself by saying highly favorable things about
himself, Bill may also begin to boast. This might lead John to
conclude that Bill must be rather conceited (or at least very
self-confident). In fact, Bill’s self-promotion was merely a
response to John’s.
The increase in cognitive load caused by effortful self-
presentation may explain some of the findings of DePaulo
et al. (1987). When one is concentrating on trying to make a
certain impression, he or she may not be fully able to attend
to how the other person is responding. After a series of inter-
actions, people may remember merely that they tried to make
roughly the same good impression on each interaction part-
ner. However, they might not remember that the partners
responded to them differently. Thus, self-presentation is not
always successful because it is difficult cognitive work. Mak-
ing a good impression consumes so many resources that
people find it hard to attend to other people’s responses and
adjust that impression.
Harmful Aspects of Self-Presentation
Through various means, self-presentation can lead to health
risks (Leary, Tchividjian, & Kraxberger, 1994). For exam-
ple, concern about the impression one is making can lead to
risky and harmful behaviors; at times, the drive to impress
others can outweigh self-preservation. How does this occur?
Appearance concerns are a relevant example. On the one
hand, people believe that having a suntan is attractive; on
the other, most people have heard the warnings about skin
cancer. Leary and Jones (1993) showed that the risky behav-
iors of sunbathing were mainly linked to concern over phys-
ical appearance and to the lack of concern about health.
People sunbathe to make themselves attractive, often ignor-
ing the physical danger involved. High-heeled and platform
shoes are another example: many women wear them because
they think it makes them look attractive despite the pain,
back problems, and lack of coordination that such shoes
often cause. Risky sexual behavior is also influenced by self-
presentation. Condoms are generally regarded as the safest
method for having intercourse outside of stable, monoga-
mous relationships, but many people do not use them.
People often cite self-presentational concerns when explain-
ing their lack of protection, such as embarrassment when
buying them and the fear of making a bad impression on an
anticipated sexual partner (Leary, 1995). Other risks re-
viewed by Leary et al. (1994) include hazardous dieting and
eating patterns, use of alcohol and illegal drugs, cigarette
smoking, steroid use, not wearing safety equipment and
other behaviors that may cause accidental injury and even
death, and submitting to cosmetic surgery and risk of its sub-
sequent complications. Taken together, these provide strong
evidence that self-presentational concerns often take prece-
dence over concerns with maintaining health and even pro-
tecting life.INTERPERSONAL CONSEQUENCES
OF SELF-VIEWSClearly, characteristics of the self exert an influence on inter-
personal relations. One of the best-known findings in social
psychology is the link between similarity and attraction
(Byrne, 1971; Smeaton, Byrne, & Murnen, 1989); that is,
people like those who resemble them (or at least, they avoid
and dislike people who are different from them; Rosenbaum,
1986). Similarities on important, heritable traits are espe-
cially potent bases for liking and disliking others (Crelia &
Tesser, 1996; Tesser, 1993).Self-Views Alter Person PerceptionEvidence suggests that self-views affect how people under-
stand others. Markus, Smith, and Moreland (1985; see also
Fong & Markus, 1982) examined the role of self-schemas in
person perception. They proposed that someone who has a
self-schema in a particular domain will behave like an expert
in that domain. For example, schematic people will spot
domain-relevant information faster, integrate it into exist-
ing information better, and fill in gaps in information more
thoroughly. In Markus et al.’s research, people who were
schematic for masculinity tended to group more items together
when judging the masculinity-relevant behavior of a stimulus
person. They also saw the stimulus person as more masculine
and more like themselves than did aschematic individuals.