Defining self-worth: Trait self-esteem moderates the use of self-serving trait definitions in social judgment

People possess self-serving definitions of social traits and categories. Wh en a trait is positive, people emphasize their own attributes in their defi nition of the trait. When the trait is negative, they de-emphasize self-att ributes. Across three studies, we discovered that this tendency is moderate d by dispositional self-esteem. High self-esteem individuals articulate mor e self-serving trait definitions than their low esteem counterparts. This w as revealed in explicit reports of trait definitions, reaction times used t o report trait definitions, as well as in judgments of other people. Althou gh more muted, the trait definitions of low self-esteem participants tended to be self-serving in one study and more "even-handed" in two others. Impl ications of these findings for understanding the relation of self to social judgment are discussed.