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Establishing versus preserving impressions: Predicting success in the multiple audience problem
Author(s) -
Nichols Austin Lee,
Cottrell Catherine A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1002/ijop.12134
Subject(s) - psychology , anxiety , social psychology , affect (linguistics) , social anxiety , face (sociological concept) , contrast (vision) , sociology , communication , social science , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , computer science
People sometimes seek to convey discrepant impressions of themselves to different audiences simultaneously. Research suggests people are generally successful in this “multiple audience problem.” Adding to previous research, the current research sought to examine factors that may limit this success by measuring social anxiety and placing participants into situations requiring them to either establish or preserve multiple impressions simultaneously. In general, participants were more successful when preserving previously conveyed impressions than when establishing impressions for the first time. In contrast, social anxiety did not affect multiple audience success. In all, this research offers valuable insight into potential challenges that people face in many social situations.