Dunn Elizabeth W, Biesanz Jeremy C, Human Lauren J, Finn Stephanie
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2007 Jun;92(6):990-1005. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.990.
Positive self-presentation may have beneficial consequences for mood that are typically overlooked. Across a series of studies, participants underestimated how good they would feel in situations that required them to put their best face forward. In Studies 1 and 2A, participants underestimated the emotional benefits of interacting with an opposite sex stranger versus the benefits of interacting with a romantic partner. In Study 2B, participants who were instructed to engage in self-presentation felt happier after interacting with their romantic partner than participants who were not given this instruction, although other participants serving as forecasters did not anticipate such benefits. Increasing the generalizability of this self-presentation effect across contexts, the authors demonstrated that participants also underestimated how good they would feel before and after being evaluated by another person (Studies 3 and 4). This failure to recognize the affective benefits of putting one's best face forward may underlie forecasting errors regarding the emotional consequences of the most common forms of social interactions.
积极的自我展示可能会对情绪产生一些通常被忽视的有益影响。在一系列研究中，参与者低估了在需要展现最佳形象的情境中他们会有多愉悦。在研究1和2A中，相较于与恋人互动的益处，参与者低估了与异性陌生人互动所带来的情绪益处。在研究2B中，被指示进行自我展示的参与者在与恋人互动后比未接受该指示的参与者感觉更快乐，尽管其他作为预测者的参与者并未预料到这种益处。为了增强这种自我展示效应在不同情境下的普遍性，作者证明参与者同样低估了在被他人评价之前和之后他们会有多愉悦（研究3和4）。未能认识到展现最佳形象所带来的情感益处可能是关于最常见社交互动形式的情绪后果预测错误的根源。
