Abstract
According to Identity Theory (IT), individuals seek to maintain consistency between their identity and identity-relevant feedback received from others. Individuals' reactions to identity-relevant feedback remain understudied in IT, especially in the exercise domain. This study examined reactions of individuals exposed to an exercise identity confirming or disconfirming public situation. Based on IT, individuals receiving identity disconfirming feedback in the presence of others were hypothesized to demonstrate greater negative affect and attempts to self-present as exercisers as compared to individuals receiving confirming feedback. A MANOVA analysis assessed differences on affective and self-presentational reactions to feedback between confirming and disconfirming conditions. The overall model was significant (p = .01). Univariate follow-up analyses revealed that individuals in the disconfirming condition reported greater negative affect (p < .01) and displayed significantly different self-presentation reactions than confirmed individuals. Specifically, disconfirming participants expressed greater disagreement with feedback (p < .01), were more likely to rationalize feedback (p < .01) and expressed a greater desire to portray themselves differently (p < .01) than confirmed participants. In the exercise domain, findings support the IT tenet that individuals seek to achieve consistency between their identity and identity-relevant perceptions that others have of them.
