What will we tell the Californians?

I'm like, you know, totally unsure of what I should feel about this.  The print edition of Scientific American for January 2005 has an article, "Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth" by Roy Baumeister, Jennifer Campbell, Joachim Krueger and Kathleen Vohs.  [12/21/04 addition:  there is now an online link to the article.]

This is why people hate scientists.  They can't just let us go on believing whatever the preacher tells us, or using the helpful tips we get from the newspaper advice column.  Noo-oooo, they have to keep telling us everything we knew to be true is wrong!

I don't know who I should consult first about this: my guru, my psychiatrist or my health-food counselor.  I mean, it just stands to reason that people who feel good about themselves also look better, doesn't it?  And that's what the surveys even show!

But Baumeister and the rest of his science poo-poo heads had to go "review the scientific literature."  Like, man, how boring has that got to be?  And what did they find?  Well, it turns out that these correlations are based on people's own self-assessments.  But back in 1995, a couple of scientific spoilsports took these self-ratings from a group of test subjects and then showed other people pictures of the individuals surveyed.  This is how Baumeister, et al summarize what they found:

Ratings based on full-length photographs showed no significant correlation with self-esteem.  Head-and-shoulders close-ups fared slightly better ... [But] when the judges were shown pictures of just the participants' unadorned faces, the modest correlation between attractiveness and self-esteem fell to zero.  In that same investigation, however, self-reported physical attractiveness was found to have a strong correlation with self-esteem.  Clearly, those with high self-esteem are gorgeous in their own eyes but not necessarily so to others.

This discrepancy should be sobering. What seemed at first to be a strong link between physical good looks and high self-esteem turned out to be nothing more than a pattern of consistency in how favorably people rate themselves.

So, just what are they trying to say here?  That narcissists think they're hot stuff, but to everyone else they're a pain in the rear, not to mention ugly?

Yeesh!

It gets worse.  They say there's no evidence that high self-esteem makes you more successful at work.  And that there's no evidence that it makes people do better in school.  Or that it's associated with being liked.  They say that it looks like people with high self-esteem may even be worse at maintaining relationships.

This one finding on teenagers and sex was not surprising, though: "bad sexual experiences and unwanted pregnancies appear to lower self-esteem."  Raising teenagers' self-esteem doesn't seem to help them avoid alchohol, smoking or drug problems, either.  Well, maybe it helps on the drug thing a bit.  And it turns out that we can't say that low esteem makes kids into bullies, either.

The only positive thing these gloomy-minded scientists can find to say is that people with good self-images are better at initiating new relationships with people:

This does seem to be one sphere in which confidence indeed matters: people who think that they are desirable and attractive should be adept at striking up conversations with strangers, whereas those with low self-esteem presumably shy away from initating such contacts, fearing rejection.

And, even though there's practically no measurable benefits to good self-esteem, people who have it are happier.  But, then they pull that scientist thing and say, hey, wait a minute, not so fast:  "further research must address the shortcomings of the work that has been done so far."  These scientists, I tell tell, not only can't they leave well enough alone.  They can't be happy with being happy!  They conclude:

[W]e have found little to indicate that indiscriminately promoting self-esteem in today's children or adults, just for being themselves, offers society any compensatory benefits beyond the seductive pleasure it brings to those engaged in the exercise.

And these highfalutin scientists go so far as to say that lots of people suffer from "floccinaucinihilipilification."  Well, how can you expect people to think well of themselves when you go around telling everybody they've got flociwhatchacallit?

If you want to read an even more detailed paper from the same authorsonthe topic, it's available here: Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles? Psychological Science in the Public Interest May 2003 (*.pdf file).  (That one has a few paragraphs on floccinaucinihilipilification.)

Me, I've had enough of all this negativity!  I'm going to go stand in front of my mirror and repeat twenty times, "Every day in every way I am getting better and better."