Self-Negativity Bias in Friendship Formation: People Anticipate Being Judged More Than Judging Others

We recruited 533 undergraduates (370 women) for a between-subjects study on perceptions of friendship initiation. They rated initiators more negatively when imagining themselves as the initiator compared to when imagining the other person as the initiator. Future interventions to encourage friendship initiation may aim to correct this self-negativity bias.