Self-Esteem and the Relation Between Risk Behavior and Perceptions of Vulnerability to Unplanned Pregnancy in College Women

This article reports 2 studies testing the hypothesis that individuals with high self-esteem are more likely than those with low self-esteem to interpret information about their personal vulnerability to health risks in a self-serving manner. Study 1 used an experimental paradigm to demonstrate that self-esteem moderates the influence of review of sexual and contraceptive behavior on college women's perceptions of vulnerability to unplanned pregnancy ( N = 125). Study 2 used a longitudinal design to demonstrate that self-esteem also moderates the relation between naturally occurring changes in college women's sexual behavior and changes in their risk perception ( N = 273). Together, these studies provide evidence that people with high self-esteem use self-serving cognitive strategies to maintain their risk perceptions.