Blending in at the cost of losing oneself: dishonest self- disclosure erodes self-concept clarity in social anxiety
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Self-concept clarity helps to promote self-esteem and guide adaptive social behavior. Recent studies have found that people with higher levels of trait social anxiety exhibit significantly diminished levels of self-concept clarity, but the mechanisms that might link higher social anxiety with lower self-concept clarity are untested and unknown. We propose that the relation between social anxiety and self-concept clarity is mediated by dishonest self-disclosure – a self-protective strategy in which one asserts an inauthentic or dishonest opinion to others based on what one believes others wish to hear rather than one's own genuine viewpoint. To test this prediction, we manipulated the honesty of participants' self-disclosures during a social task in the laboratory and measured subsequent changes in self-concept clarity. As hypothesized, dishonest relative to honest self-disclosure led to significantly reduced levels of self-concept clarity, but only amongst participants with higher levels of trait social anxiety. These findings help to elucidate the processes underlying the link between social anxiety and self-concept clarity and provide insight into the costs of adopting an inauthentic façade during interpersonal encounters when social conformity motives become salient.
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People with SAD have also been shown to exhibit more inauthentic opinions, with this tendency predicting lowered self-concept clarity.
“Furthermore, people with SAD have also been shown to exhibit more inauthentic opinions (151), with this tendency predicting lowered self-concept clarity.”
From MDMA-Assisted Therapy as a Means to Alter Affective, Cognitive, Behavioral, and Neurological Systems Underlying Social Dysfunction in Social Anxiety Disorder (2021) · cites this paper as [151]
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“Furthermore, people with SAD have also been shown to exhibit more inauthentic opinions (151), with this tendency predicting lowered self-concept clarity.”
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- Authors
- Orr, E. M. J., & Moscovitch, D. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Waterloo (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Orr, Elizabeth M.J.
- Moscovitch, David A.
- ORCID
- Moscovitch, David A.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-10
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 278-296
- ISSN
- 2043-8087 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2774623980
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 1.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canada Research Chairs
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- self-concept clarity, trait social anxiety, self-presentation, self-protection strategies, conformity, self-esteem, authenticity, interpersonal behavior
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