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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 7, 926-938 (2002)

Self-Evaluation, Persistence, and Performance Following Implicit Rejection: The Role of Trait Self-Esteem

Kristin L. Sommer

Baruch College, City University of New York

Roy F. Baumeister

Case Western Reserve University

In three studies, participants were primed with words connotinginterpersonal acceptance, interpersonal rejection, or otheraversive outcomes. Study 1 revealed that participants low in self-esteemresponded to rejection (compared to other) primes byappraising themselves less positively and more negatively,whereas those high in self-esteem showed the opposite tendency.Study 2 showed that implicit rejection caused participants lowin self-esteem to give up sooner on a difficult (unsolvable) anagramtask but led those high in self-esteem to persist longer. Study3 revealed that primed rejection hampered performance amonglow-self-esteem participants but somewhat improved performanceamong high-self-esteem participants. Taken together, thefindings indicated that people with low self-esteem automaticallyrespond to interpersonal rejection with self-deprecation andwithdrawal, whereas those with high self-esteem tend to reactwith affirmation and perseverance. People with low self-esteemappear to possess few resources for defending against rejectionthreat.

Key Words: rejection • self-esteem • motivation • priming


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