Accepting threatening information: Self-affirmation and the reduction of defensive biases

Abstract

Why do people resist evidence that challenges the validity of long-held beliefs? And why do they persist in maladaptive behavior even when persuasive information or personal experience recommends change? We argue that such defensive tendencies are driven, in large part, by a fundamental motivation to protect the perceived worth and integrity of the self. Studies of social-political debate, health-risk assessment, and responses to team victory or defeat have shown that people respond to information in a less defensive and more open-minded manner when their self-worth is buttressed by an affirmation of an alternative source of identity. Self-affirmed individuals are more likely to accept information that they would otherwise view as threatening, and subsequently to change their beliefs and even their behavior in a desirable fashion. Defensive biases have an adaptive function for maintaining self-worth, but maladaptive consequences for promoting change and reducing social conflict.