506 v. AFFECTI vE PROCESSES
als to protect, defend, and enhance their 
self- representations, which in turn allows 
them to maintain their place in their social 
groups, avoid social rejection, and seek, at -
tain, and maintain social rank (Sedikides & 
Skowronski, 2000; Tracy & Robins, 2004a). 
All human societies reveal status differences 
among individuals that influence patterns 
of conflict, resource allocation, and mating, 
and often facilitate coordination on group 
tasks (Berger, Rosenholtz, & Zelditch, 
1980). High-  status individuals tend to hold 
disproportionate influence, while low-  status 
individuals often passively give up these 
benefits, deferring to higher-  status group 
members. As a result, high status tends to 
promote greater fitness than low status, and 
a large body of evidence attests to a strong 
relation between social rank and fitness or 
well-being (e.g., Barkow, 1975; Hill, 1984). 
Self- conscious emotions may have evolved to 
coordinate and motivate behaviors essential 
to maintaining and attaining high status, or 
effectively coping with a drop in status.
At a more proximate level, self-  conscious 
emotions guide individual behavior by com -
pelling people to do things that are socially 
valued and to avoid doing things that lead 
to social approbation. We strive to achieve, 
to be a good person, parent, friend, or 
partner, because doing so makes us proud 
of ourselves,  and failing to do so makes us 
feel guilty or ashamed of ourselves . Society 
tells us what kind of person we should be; 
we internalize these beliefs in the form of 
actual and ideal self-  representations, and 
self- conscious emotions motivate behavioral 
action toward the goals embodied in these 
self- representations. Although we might un -
derstand cognitively that hard work is valu -
able, it often takes the psychological force 
of emotions such as guilt and pride to make 
us do those things we know are good for 
us (Tracy & Robins, 2004a; Tracy, 2016). 
Ultimately, doing these good things is what 
ensures that we retain our place in society— 
and advance it.
Pride
One of the most notable aspects of pride is 
that it is not just one thing; scholars have 
commented upon pride’s dual-  faceted na -
ture for over a millennium. Its dark or “sin -ful” side has been widely cautioned against 
(see Tracy, Shariff, & Cheng, 2010; Tracy, 
2016), while its more positive, prosocial, 
and achievement-  oriented side tends to be 
just as widely cheered. Correspondingly, 
researchers have postulated distinct “hu -
bristic” and “authentic” components of the 
emotion (Tracy & Robins, 2004a, 2007). 
Several lines of empirical research support 
this account and suggest that individuals 
conceptualize and experience pride in terms 
of two very different categories of feelings 
(Tracy & Robins, 2007). Authentic pride 
comprises feelings of accomplishment, pro -
ductivity, and self-worth, whereas hubristic 
pride comprises arrogance and conceit. At 
both the trait and state levels, authentic pride 
is positively related to the socially desirable 
and generally adaptive Big Five traits of ex -
traversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, 
emotional stability, and openness to experi -
ence, whereas hubristic pride is consistently 
negatively related to the two prosocial traits 
of agreeableness and conscientiousness. 
People who tend to feel authentic pride also 
tend to have high self-  esteem, at both ex -
plicit and implicit levels, whereas those who 
tend toward hubristic pride are more likely 
to have low implicit and explicit self-  esteem, 
and to be prone to shame and vulnerable or 
dysfunctional (as well as grandiose) forms of 
narcissism (Tracy & Robins, 2007; Tracy, 
Cheng, Robins, & Trzesniewski, 2009). 
Authentic pride is also positively associated 
with narcissism, but only with the grandi -
ose, “healthy” form, consistent with the sug -
gestion that the distinction between the two 
prides maps onto the well-noted distinction 
between genuine self-  esteem and narcissism 
(Tracy, Cheng, Martens, & Robins, 2011).
The pride facets also differ in their as -
sociations with a wide range of social be -
haviors; each seems to underlie a different 
way of engaging with the social world and 
approaching one’s goals. Individuals high 
in dispositional authentic pride tend to be 
low in aggression, hostility, and rejection 
sensitivity, and high in life satisfaction, re -
lationship satisfaction, dyadic adjustment, 
and social support, and they report secure 
attachments to their relationship partners. 
In contrast, individuals high in dispositional 
hubristic pride are more likely to engage in 
aggression, hostility, and other antisocial 