Show me what threatens you, and I can tell who you are: Perception of threat and the self

Abstract

This article proposes a methodical way to understand the self from the angle of psychologically meaningful threat. On the basis of systematic cross-cultural examination of threats to core self-motives, this comprises the notion of self as being most reliably described by instances in which a person shows a motivated response to information from the social environment. Building on accounts of cultural differences in self- construal, this approach allows insight into self-related processes, because motivated responses to self-threat should depend on how the self is defined in the social space. The research conducted from this approach has examined cultural differences to threats to freedom, belonging and consistency. For people with a collectivistic cultural background, as well as for those with a more interdependent self-construal within a given culture, responses to freedom, belonging and consistency threats were less intense, particularly when threats were directed at the individual sense of self. Looking at the self from this perspective further allows for insight into underlying mechanisms into self-related processes, as well as for more direct information on the influence of context on what constitutes the self.