Self-Affirmations Can Boost Confidence and Improve Performance, Study Finds

By Julie Sabino julie.s@hngn.com | Apr 18, 2015 12:32 PM EDT

There are times when even the most confident person you know experiences a "low power position," in which that person feels that he or she is not performing at best. So, how can you neutralize those low days? A new study suggests an effective technique that can boost your performance or confidence to get the things that you want: self-affirmation.

Self-affirmation is a psychological theory that explains how some people are able to handle a threat or stress by reflecting on their personal values that can make them feel better.

"Anytime you have low expectations for your performance, you tend to sink down and meet those low expectations," Dr. Sonia Kang, lead researcher and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, said in a press release. "Self-affirmation is a way to neutralize that threat."

Kang and her research team set up three experiments to test how self-affirmations can boost people's confidence and improve their performance. The situations were also divided into high pressure and low pressure.

The first experiment involved 134 participants playing as a recruiter or a job applicant. The recruiters, or the high pressure group, were told that the exercise aims to measure their negotiating skills, while the job applicants, or the low pressure group, were told that they simply need to learn the concepts of negotiation.

The second experiment involved 60 students playing as a buyer or a seller. Similar to the first experiment, the high pressure group, or the sellers, was measured in terms of getting a higher selling price.

The two experiments showed that the high pressure groups performed better than the low pressure groups. The researchers believe that this is because they were given higher expectations, which pushed them to perform at their best.

The third experiment had 88 participants that were all put on a high pressure test. Both buyers and sellers, as well as the recruiters and applicants, were told that their negotiating skills will be assessed. Half of the participants were asked to write their most important negotiating skill, while the other half wrote their least important negotiating skill.

The third experiment showed that those who wrote positive self-affirmation performed better than the other group. For instance, the buyer who was unable to get a lower price during the second experiment was able to get it after listing his strengths.

Kang said people may benefit more from writing down a self-affirmation than just thinking about it, but both methods can be helpful. People may also be able to perform better and feel better about themselves by writing or thinking about positive traits that aren't related to important situations they face.

The team concluded that positive self-affirmation is enough to boost one's confidence and improve performance when handling stressful situations.

The study was published in the April 17 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.