The Influence of Pride Diagnosticity on Self-Control

Pride is a self-conscious emotion shown to generate appraisals of increased self-worth, which can have a diametric influence on self-control efforts. In some instances, pride’s increased self-worth can encourage people to exert self-control (Patrick, Chun, and MacInnis 2009; Williams and DeSteno 2008). In other instances, this same sense of self-worth can foster a “license to sin” and lead to self-control lapses (Wilcox, Kramer, and Sen 2011; Winterich and Haws 2011). Thus, understanding when pride assists versus impedes self-control may depend on the consideration of other moderating factors. This research proposes that the influence of incidental pride on self-control is a function of (1) whether the experienced pride is perceived to provide diagnostic information about how to behave and, (2) a person’s present goal state. We find that two antecedents (i.e., the circumstances that were responsible for the pride) determine when pride is diagnostic: stability and effort. Stability is pride experienced as a function of how frequently an accomplishment is made within a domain. Effort is pride experienced as a function of the difficulty level of an accomplishment within a domain. When pride is high (versus low) in stability or effort in one domain, it should be perceived as diagnostic for what to do in other domains. This is because pride high in stability (effort) pertains to an accomplishment requiring persistence (overcoming difficulty). Such an accomplishment should be more trustworthy for what to do in other domains because persistence (overcoming difficulty) is applicable to attaining self-control success across all domains (Freund and Riediger 2006; Williams and DeSteno 2008).