Knowledge Bank

Self-affirmation—the act of reflecting on a source of self-worth to restore one's self- integrity—can help people cope with self-threats in a variety of domains, such as health (Reed & Aspinwall, 1998; Sherman & Cohen, 2000) and academics (Sherman et al., 2013). Recent research demonstrates that people recognize the benefits of self-affirmation (Reeves et al., 2020). The present work aims to extend past research by examining whether people's beliefs about self- affirmation can buffer them from the negative effects of a current self-threat. The present study (N = 240) specifically examined the self-threat of social exclusion. Participants completed an assessment that measured their beliefs about self-affirmation (Reeves et al., 2020). This assessment presented participants with scenarios involving self-threat and control scenarios. For each scenario, participants rated how helpful it would be to engage in self-affirmation compared to an alternative, ineffective strategy. After the assessment, participants were presented with Cyberball (Williams et al., 2000), where some participants faced a threat by being excluded during the game. Finally, participants completed a measure of ostracism recovery. Replicating past research, we found that participants recognized that self-affirmation would be more helpful for self-threat scenarios compared to control condition scenarios. The patterns of results appeared to suggest that individual differences in self-affirmation beliefs might buffer people from self-threat, although the findings were not statistically significant. Future studies may address the limitations of the current work by examining everyday experiences of self-threat.