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. 2021 Feb 1:3:e10.
doi: 10.1017/ehs.2021.6. eCollection 2021.

How pride works

Daniel Sznycer  1   2 , Adam Scott Cohen  3
Affiliations

How pride works

Daniel Sznycer et al. Evol Hum Sci. .

Abstract

The emotion of pride appears to be a neurocognitive guidance system to capitalize on opportunities to become more highly valued and respected by others. Whereas the inputs and the outputs of pride are relatively well understood, little is known about how the pride system matches inputs to outputs. How does pride work? Here we evaluate the hypothesis that pride magnitude matches the various outputs it controls to the present activating conditions - the precise degree to which others would value the focal individual if the individual achieved a particular achievement. Operating in this manner would allow the pride system to balance the competing demands of effectiveness and economy, to avoid the dual costs of under-deploying and over-deploying its outputs. To test this hypothesis, we measured people's responses regarding each of 25 socially valued traits. We observed the predicted magnitude matchings. The intensities of the pride feeling and of various motivations of pride (communicating the achievement, demanding better treatment, investing in the valued trait and pursuing new challenges) vary in proportion: (a) to one another; and (b) to the degree to which audiences value each achievement. These patterns of magnitude matching were observed both within and between the USA and India. These findings suggest that pride works cost-effectively, promoting the pursuit of achievements and facilitating the gains from others' valuations that make those achievements worth pursuing.

Keywords: culture; emotion; evolutionary psychology; motivation; valuation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Scatter plots: intensities of pride-relevant outputs as a function of valuation, by country. Note: each point represents the mean valuation rating and mean output rating of one scenario. Ratings of valuation, pride feeling, communicate event, demand better treatment, invest in valued trait, pursue new challenges and destroy evidence were given by different participants. Number on which the correlations are based = number of scenarios = 25. USA data, panels a–f; India data, panels g–l.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Correlations between ratings of valuation and ratings of pride feeling, communicate event, demand better treatment, invest in valued trait, pursue new challenges and destroy evidence, within and between countries. Note: (a) USA correlations (white shapes); (b) India correlations (black shapes); (c) Correlations between valuation in the USA and pride-relevant outputs in India; (d) correlations between valuation in India and pride-relevant outputs in the USA. Number on which the correlations are based = number of scenarios = 25. Ratings of valuation, pride feeling, communicate event, demand better treatment, invest in valued trait, pursue new challenges and destroy evidence were given by different participants. ***P < 0.001; **P < 0.01; *P < 0.05.
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