Being modest makes you feel bad: effects of the modesty norm and mortality salience on self-esteem in a collectivistic culture.

Terror management research shows that existential terror motivates people to live up to social norms. According to terror management theory (TMT), people can achieve a sense of self-worth through compliance with social norms. However, this has not yet been empirically tested. Modesty has long been known as an important social norm in Eastern cultures, such as China, Japan, and Korea. The current research examined whether conforming to the modesty norm in response to reminders of death concerns increases self-esteem for Chinese. In Study 1, following the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self-effacement) led to decreased implicit self-esteem, however, this was only the case if mortality was salient. In Study 2, violating the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self-enhancement) increased implicit self-esteem - however - again, this was only the case when mortality was salient. These findings indicate that self-esteem cannot be maintained through compliance with the modesty norm. Implications of this research for understanding the interplay between self-esteem and social norms in terror management processes are discussed.