'I wouldn't belong to any club that would have me as a member,"said Groucho Marx--just as people with a poor self-image, it seems, don't believe a compliment if they're the ones giving it. That was the finding of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, who discovered that while people with high self-esteem can pat themselves on the back for a good performance, those with lower opinions of themselves need to hear the praise from someone else.
Robert Josephs, Ph.D., and Chris Jacobs gave one group of subjects a set of problems rigged to become progressively easier, allowing them to feel that their performance had improved. Other participants worked on a set that remained difficult, and were then praised by experimenters for their excellent showing.
People with favorable self-images felt good about themselves after either episode, indicating that they were able to provide their own positive reinforcement. Those with low self-esteem, on the other hand, only believed that they had done well when told so by a second party. Says Jacobs, "People with high self-esteem think that they're very credible sources of feedback. If they think they're doing well, it's hard to convince them otherwise. People with low self-esteem don't consider themselves that credible. If they see themselves doing better, they don't believe it."
