Emerging Insights Into the Nature and Function of Pride

Pride, a ‘‘self-conscious’’ emotion involving complex self-evaluative processes, is a fundamental human emotion. Recent research provides new insights into its nature and function. Like the ‘‘basic’’ emotions, pride is associated with a distinct, universally recognized, nonverbal expression, which is spontaneously displayed during pride experiences. Yet, pride differs from the basic emotions in its dependency on self-evaluations and in its complex structure, which is comprised of two theoretically and conceptually distinct facets that have divergent personality correlates and cognitive antecedents. In this article, we summarize findings from the growing body of research on pride and highlight the implications of this research for a broader understanding of emotions and social behavior. KEYWORDS—pride; authentic pride; hubristic pride; selfconscious emotion; nonverbal expression; emotion recognition When it comes to motivating social behavior, pride may be the most important human emotion. Our most meaningful achievements, both everyday and life changing, are accompanied by feelings of pride. Students experience pride after receiving a good grade, children after succeeding at a new task, and adolescents after finding a mate. Adults feel pride in response to a promotion at work, a child’s first steps, and once-in-a-lifetime accomplishments like winning the Nobel Prize. Conversely, wounded pride lies at the heart of many of society’s largest problems, such as intergroup conflict and terrorism, as well as smaller interpersonal problems, such as an argument that destroys a friendship. Indeed, pride is a cornerstone emotion that fuels several fundamental human pursuits: the desire to achieve; to attain power and status; to meet a romantic partner with high mate value; to feel good about oneself and one’s social group; and to raise successful, intelligent, and well-behaved children. A COMPLEX EMOTION THAT IS ‘‘PLAINLY EXPRESSED’’ One of the major findings in the social and behavioral sciences is the discovery that a small set of ‘‘basic’’ emotions (anger, disgust, happiness, fear, sadness, and surprise) have distinct, universally recognized, nonverbal expressions (Ekman & Friesen, 1971). This finding, which emerged from studies conducted across a wide range of cultures including highly isolated, preliterate groups, led many scientists to adopt a Darwinian perspective toward these emotions. In this framework, each emotion is assumed to be biologically based; shared with other animals; experienced across all cultures; and identifiable via a discrete, universal expression. The predominance of this perspective led to major advances in basic-emotion research but also to the neglect of more cognitively complex, ‘‘self-conscious’’ emotions, such as pride, which were assumed to be less evolutionarily basic. In the decades following Ekman and Friesen’s (1971) seminal work, researchers searched for but, with a few possible exceptions, failed to find additional universal emotion expressions. Long overlooked was Darwin’s (1872/1998) suggestion that Of all the . . . complex emotions, pride, perhaps, is the most plainly expressed . . . A proud man exhibits his superiority over others by holding his head and body erect. He . . . makes himself appear as large as possible; so that metaphorically he is said to be swollen or puffed up with pride. (pp. 262–263) Building on Darwin’s proposition, we conducted a series of studies testing whether pride has a distinct, recognizable nonverbal expression. We started by asking observers to identify the emotion conveyed in posed expressions, based on nonverbal behaviors documented in children following task success (Stipek, Recchia, & McClintic, 1992), as well as in our own work manipulating components of these expressions (e.g., posture, head tilt). We found that the best-recognized, or most prototypical, pride expression includes facial (low-intensity smile) and bodily components (expanded posture, slight head tilt, arms akimbo with hands on hips or raised above the head with hands in fists; see Fig. 1). This expression is reliably recognized and distinguished from similar emotions (e.g., happiness) by adults Address correspondence to Jessica L. Tracy, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada; e-mail: [email protected]. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Volume 16—Number 3 147 Copyright r 2007 Association for Psychological Science from several cultures and by children as young as 4 years old (Tracy & Robins, 2004; Tracy, Robins, & Lagattuta, 2005; see Fig. 2). Perhaps the strongest evidence for Darwin’s claim about pride is the recent finding that individuals from a highly isolated, preliterate tribe in Burkina Faso, West Africa, can reliably recognise the pride expression (Tracy & Robins, 2007a; Fig. 2). Given that these individuals are unlikely to have learned the pride expression through cross-cultural contact, such as exposure to Western media, their recognition suggests that the expression may be a human universal and not simply a culture-specific gesture like the ‘‘thumb’s up’’ sign. Other research confirms that the nonverbal display we identified is, in fact, expressed when individuals experience pride. Children tend show components of the expression, including head tilt and expanded posture, after success (e.g., Stipek et al., 1992). Athletes from a wide range of cultures were found to display several components of the pride expression (e.g., head tilt, expanded chest) after winning a match in the 2004 Olympic judo competition (Tracy & Matsumoto, 2007). However, future research should examine the extent to which the pride expression is displayed versus regulated in real-life contexts that are less emotionally intense or in which social norms prohibit pride displays. Moreover, studies should examine how pride-display rules might differ across (a) other aspects of the social context, such as being alone versus with others; (b) eliciting conditions, such as pride felt for a personal achievement versus an achievement involving the relational self (e.g., pride in one’s child or spouse) or collective self (e.g., national or ethnic pride); and (c) cultures, such as those with individualistic as opposed to collectivistic orientations. A TALE OF TWO PRIDES The research we described demonstrates that the pride expression is cross-culturally recognized and spontaneously displayed in achievement contexts. However, these studies do not address the question of what, exactly, pride is. Writings by laypeople and scientists alike suggest that there may be more than a single emotion lurking beneath the term pride. Ancient Greek and biblical thought condemned excessive pride or hubris, yet in Western culture pride is widely viewed as a virtue to be sought and encouraged. Reflecting these divergent views, pride has been linked to both adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. Although pride in one’s successes promotes continued achievement-oriented behaviors, the ‘‘hubristic’’ pride associated with narcissism may contribute to aggression, hostility, and interpersonal problems. Expression A