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Self-Verification Theory

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Self-confirmation; Self-validation

Definition

Self-verification is a social psychological theory that asserts that people want others to see them as they see themselves and will take active steps to ensure that others perceive them in ways that confirm their stable self-views.

Introduction

Self-verification theory proposes that people prefer to be seen as they see themselves, even if their self-views are negative (Swann 2012). The theory holds that people act according to the preference for evaluations that verify their self-views by working to ensure that their experiences confirm and reinforce their self-views. For example, those who see themselves as likable seek out and embrace others who evaluate them positively, whereas those who see themselves as dislikable seek out and embrace others who evaluate them negatively.

Origins of Self-Verification

Self-verification theory is based on the premise that people have a powerful desire to confirm and thus stabilize their firmly...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Sanaz Talaifar & William B. Swann Jr.

Authors
  1. Sanaz Talaifar
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  2. William B. Swann Jr.
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Correspondence to Sanaz Talaifar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Christian Jordan

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Talaifar, S., Swann, W.B. (2017). Self-Verification Theory. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1180-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1180-1

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