Seven Sins: Pride is not so much a function of other people, but that of the self, says Daniel Sznycer

Down To Earth (DTE) speaks to scientists and authors to take stock of what we know so far about the emotions of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth; the historical debates around them and the critical gaps in our understanding.

In the second part, DTE speaks to Daniel Sznycer, an assistant professor at the department of psychology, Oklahoma State University, US. Sznycer studies cross-cultural evidence on shame, pride, compassion and envy, and their role in altruism, social exclusion and conflict.

Q. Is pride scientifically defined?

A. There is some consensus on pride. At the same time, there are different theories on it. We are working on a theory­—purely, a social theory of pride—that seeks the reason why we have pride. For us, pride has two functions: a prospective function and a retrospective function.

In retrospective function, if one has achieved something in the past, s/he advertises it. The person lets others know about the achievement. And not only do they advertise, they also demand, for example, better treatment by others, corresponding to the new worth of the individual. In prospective function, this emotion guides action because it tells the individual which actions or trades or achievements are liked by other people in your group. So, with this information, the individual can, in the most cost-effective and efficient manner, choose the best thing to do to become, for example, a billionaire.

But if the individual does not have the abilities to become a billionaire, then s/he goes for the next best, or the 17th best option, by playing soccer, for example. So, I will get more valuation from others, and getting more valuation from others means that, behaviourally, they will treat you better. They will be more willing to help you, incur costs to help you. So, that is an interpersonal or a social theory of pride.

The reason why pride exists is because it is useful to obtain the valuation from others in terms of status and liking and support. Pride is not so much a function of other people, but a function of the self and how I myself interpret events. It is a psychodynamic theory of pride. It is more about how the self views itself. The other theory I am working on is much more social. I feel pride and I guide my actions based on how I think of other people, or how I expect that other people will see me or should see me.

Q. Is there a clear difference between pride and confidence?

A. There are several relationships. Confidence is an internal state, a measure that tells you how confident you are about something, your degree of certainty about achieving something. This is an internal variable that may regulate behaviour because if you are confident that you can make a toy out of wood, you do it. And if you do not, you buy it.

One of the components of pride is confidence. If you have pride, underpinned by actual achievement and validated by other people, then you have confidence. This confidence in your social worth is very important. Psychologist Mark Leary of Duke University, US, and others have shown that self-esteem, like self-confidence, is a function of how much I think that other people value me and include me as opposed to excluding me. So pride includes this component of self-confidence or self-esteem. It also includes additional components, like the way one advertises oneself, like, “I am great.”

Q. Is pride a valuable emotion or trait for a social species?

A. Pride is a kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is socially good because it motivates the individual to invest in courses of action, in things that other people value. It is kind of an internal price system that guides your behaviour. As a by-product of that guidance, it causes people to produce things so that other people value you. So, it is a socially good system in that sense. It leads to the production of socially valuable things. But at the same time, if you produce socially valuable things too much and have achieved great things and have a super high status, people could resent you for that, even if they are benefitting from the value you produce. Because of the value a person possesses, others are more likely to help them.

Q. Do people without valued skills also show pride?

A. It makes for a dangerous situation if someone holding a position of power displays pride as they feel entitled to better treatment from the community despite not having achieved anything good or do not have the means to be valued.

This poses the risk of producing anger and aggression because the person is essentially demanding to be treated better for nothing, with no corresponding increase in their worth and no increase on the goods or the services that they can provide to the community. And, therefore, the reaction of the public is understandably negative. So, unwarranted pride can certainly and does certainly lead to anger, aggression and resentment from people.

There’s a saying in the Bible: “There’s pride before fall”. It means that the fall of an individual is preceded by pride. This usually happens when the pride is unwarranted.

But another reason why you might have pride, even if you have not exactly achieved something great, is because you have power. If you have power, be it because of your dad, uncle or mom, the king or the queen or a politician, you may act in a way that is very similar to pride, or exactly the same as pride, namely demanding a lot of respect from other people.

So the logic of social valuation in humans plays out two ways. A community may value a person because s/he produces a lot of good things like piano, soccer, medicine, and the like, or because s/he is very strong—has weapons or powerful allies. So, the person may not be producing good things, but if they have all the power, they can, in effect, force or intimidate people to treat them better. So, there is pride through achieving good things, but there also can be pride that comes from being powerful and intimidating. And that’s the other side of pride.

Q. You have done studies on pride across different cultures. Do you see differences across countries in how pride is viewed or how it is experienced?

A. Yes, there are subtle differences. The first thing to notice is the similarities. There are massive, important similarities within cultures and across cultures. Pride system has a map of how valuable other people think of certain achievements. And that helps the individual to invest in different courses of actions in a way that matches what people actually value, so that they can become more valuable cost-effectively. And this relationship, moreover, is seen not only within each of 16 countries covered in my study, which includes the US, Japan, Italy and Turkey, but it is also seen between countries.

There are things that elicit pride differently across cultures. We did detailed tests in India and the US to find actions that are valuable in India, but not in the US, and vice versa. For example, a butcher selling steaks in the US may feel pride if they do a good job. But if you kill cows in India that may not lead to pride; that may lead to outrage from people. So, yes, there are cultural differences and pride tracks those cultural differences in value.

(as told to Rohini Krishnamurthy)

This is the third of an 18-part series.

This was first published as part of the cover story of the 16-31 May, 2024 Print edition of Down To Earth