Self-Verification Theory

Self-verification theory — a social psychological theory, developed by psychologist William Swann in the early 1980s — proposes we’re motivated to seek feedback and interact with others in ways that confirm our pre-existing self-concepts, even if those self-views are negative. We strive for agreement between our internal beliefs and how others perceive us, which ensure our social interactions make sense. Maintaining a stable, consistent self-image provides psychological coherence and predictability in the world. This need for stability can override a desire for self-enhancement (seeking positive feedback). We actively engage in activity to obtain self-verifying information:

• Identity cues are symbols (clothing, posture, car) to signal who we are to others to evoke specific reactions.
• Interaction selection means gravitating toward relationship partners and social environments that are likely to provide self-confirmation.
• Eliciting reactions once in relationships, to cause others to treat us in self-confirming ways. A person with a negative self-view behaves negatively to their roommate, who then rejects them, thus confirming their original self-perception.
• Biased processing is paying more attention to, better remembering, and interpreting information to reinforce existing self-views (in research, this is called confirmation bias).