When The “Why” Makes You Socially Useful

Abstract. This research investigates whether higher-level act identities, which indicate why one is performing a given action or the effects it will have, is more socially valued than lower-level act identities, which indicate how one performs the action. We investigated this question using three complementary paradigms involving self-presentation (Study 1, N = 39), identification (Study 2, N = 79), and a judge (Study 3, N = 63), respectively. Overall, we found that higher-level act identities met with greater social approval. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that higher-level act identities were valued because of their social utility and not associated with social desirability. We discuss the benefits of using a normative approach for understanding action identification processes and the effect of social pressure on endorsements of higher-level act identities.