Effects of Self-presentation Style and Expectancies on the Audiences' Impression Formation

This study investigated whether the effects of self-enhancing and self-effacing presentations on impression formation could depend on audiences' expectancies. When self-presentation is consistent with audiences' expectancies about the presenter, such a presentation should be regarded as trivial and have no influence on one's impression of the presenter. On the other hand, when self-presentation is inconsistent, it should be regarded as unusual and have an influence on the impression. One hundred and seventy one undergraduates participated in a scenario experiment where expectancies about the presenter and the self-presentation style were manipulated. In general, self-effacing presentations were preferred to self-enhancing presentations. But when participants were given the expectancy that the presenter was a selfassured person, participants regarded self-enhancing presentation as trivial and evaluated the self-enhancing person as positively as the self-effacing person. The influences of cultural norm and the consistency between personal expectancies and the self-presentation styles were discussed.