Getting more from success: Standard raising as esteem maintenance

In 4 studies, the authors tested the hypothesis that success prompts standard raising and that doing so helps maintain performance-related esteem by augmenting perceptions of competence. Study I showed that students raised examination standards following success in meeting them. In Study 2, professors who were recently promoted to tenure raised what they thought were the publication standards at their university, compared with the standards of their norpromoted counterparts. Supporting the authors' esteem-maintenance account, participants in Study 3 reported that they would feel better meeting a high standard by a small margin than meeting a low standard by a large margin, and competence attributions mediated this relationship. Participants in Study 4 raised standards when their esteem was threatened but not when it was affirmed, also supporting an esteem-maintenance account. Alternative interpretations of standard raising, including goals for future improvement and initial standard lowering, were not supported in these studies.