Affirmation Anxiety: Self-Affirmation Arouses Motivational Conflict for People with Low Self-Esteem

This research reports evidence that people with low self-esteem (LSEs) feel conflicted about self-affirmation exercises, and therefore refrain from affirming their values strongly. Results show that a weak affirmation functions to keep approach-motivation low, and thereby avoids motivational conflict for LSEs. However, it also eliminates the effectiveness of the self-affirmation.