 23. The Self‑Conscious and Social Emotions  517
ing, and the other representing “self-  abasing 
humility” and characterized by feelings such 
as unimportant, shameful, worthless,  and 
meek  (Weidman et al., 2018). Appreciative 
humility—  which mirrors previous positive 
conceptualizations—  tends to follow per -
sonal successes and involve action tenden -
cies oriented toward celebrating others, and 
is linked to emotional and personality dis -
positions that underlie achievement, such as 
authentic pride and prestige-  based status. In 
contrast, self-  abasing humility more often 
follows personal failures and involves nega -
tive self-  evaluative cognitions and action 
tendencies oriented toward hiding from oth -
ers’ evaluations, and is linked to dispositions 
that underlie failure and withdrawal, such as 
low self-  esteem and submissiveness. These 
two dimensions also emerged in conceptu -
alizations of humility made by academic ex -
perts (i.e., editors of top-  ranked philosophy 
and theology journals).
One important future direction is to fur -
ther elucidate the functional consequences 
of both sides of this complex social emotion. 
Based the known correlates, appreciative hu -
mility may help individuals attain prestige 
by demonstrating that despite their com -
petence, they are prosocial group members 
who deserve admiration rather than envy. 
In contrast, self-  abasing humility may func -
tion to signal one’s awareness of a failure or 
decline in status; one important question is 
therefore the extent to which this side of hu -
mility is distinct from shame.
Conclusion
The self-  conscious and social emotions are 
central to personality functioning; they 
guide and shape many everyday social be -
haviors, interactions, and relationships. 
There is also evidence to suggest that these 
emotions serve important social functions 
and, at least in several cases, they evolved in 
humans to do so. The evolutionary evidence 
is much stronger for pride and shame com -
pared to the other social emotions, but this 
may well be a result of the relatively greater 
research attention that self-  conscious emo -
tions have received. One important future 
direction is therefore continued research at -
tention to the other social emotions; studies are needed to examine these emotions in the 
same way that self-  conscious emotions have 
been studied: in terms of their possible non -
verbal displays, cross-  cultural generalizabil -
ity, lifespan development, and physiological 
correlates and impact on health. Nonethe -
less, as this is the first edition of the Hand -
book of Personality to include a chapter on 
self- conscious and social emotions, it is clear 
that great strides have been made, and we 
hope this review helps direct the next steps 
in these endeavors.
NOTE
1. Although Buckels and colleagues (2015) la -
beled this emotion “tenderness,” it was defined in 
the same manner as previous conceptualizations of 
compassion, and was measured with the word com -
passion .
REFERENCES
Algoe, S. B. (2012). Find, remind, and bind: The 
functions of gratitude in everyday relationships. 
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6, 
455–469.
Allemand, M., & Hill, P. L. (2016). Gratitude from 
early adulthood to old age. Journal of Personal -
ity, 84,  21–35.
Ashton- James, C. E., & Tracy, J. L. (2012). Pride 
and prejudice: How feelings about the self influ -
ence judgments of others. Personality and Social 
Psychology Bulletin, 38, 466–476.
Barkow, J. H. (1975). Prestige and culture: A bio -
social interpretation. Current Anthropology, 16,  
553–572.
Bartlett, M. Y., & DeSteno, D. (2006). Gratitude 
and prosocial behavior: Helping when it costs 
you. Psychological Science, 17, 319–325.
Batson, C. D., Fultz, J., & Schoenrade, P. A. (1987). 
Distress and empathy: Two qualitatively distinct 
vicarious emotions with different motivational 
consequences. Journal of Personality, 55, 19–39.
Baumeister, R. F., Stillwell, A. M., & Heatherton, 
T. F. (1994). Guilt: An interpersonal approach. 
Psychological Bulletin, 115, 243 –267.
Beall, A. T., & Tracy, J. L. (2017). Emotivational 
psychology: How distinct emotions facilitate 
fundamental motives. Social and Personality 
Psychology Compass, 11, Article e12303.
Belsky, J., Domitrovich, C., & Crnic, K. (1997). 
Temperament and parenting antecedents of in -
dividual differences in three-year-old boys’ pride 
and shame reactions. Child Development, 68,  
456–466.