Are People Good at Self-Promotion? Taking Stock of the Divergent Effects of a Ubiquitous Set of Behaviors

Abstract: People want others to view them in a positive light, motivating ubiquitous attempts at self-promotion. This raises an important question: Given that they routinely engage in self-promotion, are people good at it? We provide a systematic review of the literature and uncover two major findings. First, people’s ability at self-promotion appears limited, improving impressions in only 39.0% of the studies, and leading to nonsignificant effects in 37.4% of the studies and negative effects in 23.5% of the studies. Second, people’s ability at self-promotion is asymmetric, whereby self-promotion is far more likely to improve competence impressions (52.2% of the studies) than warmth impressions (28.2% of the studies). We discuss implications for research on self-promotion, social judgment, and social interactions, and offer suggestions for future research.

Keywords: self-promotion, warmth, competence, systematic review