Are we as good as we think? Observers’ perceptions of indirect self-presentation as a social influence tactic

Three studies tested whether indirect self-presentation actually works as a social influence tactic in the eyes of other people—as prior research has shown that it works for the self—and, if so, whether it works to the same degree for others as it does for the self. Experiment 1 demonstrated that basking in reflected glory, an association with a positively viewed entity, did improve an audience’s perceptions of the basker. Experiment 2 demonstrated that if the audience’s view of the basking target changed, an identical basking strategy backfired and was perceived negatively by the audience. Experiment 3 further examined potential self–other differences in the effectiveness of indirect selfpresentation using a purportedly shared birthday association while directly comparing an observer’s views to self-views. The birthday association did change the observer’s view but to a lesser degree than it changed the person’s self-views, suggesting a self–other asymmetry.