1976/09/01 by Robert B. Cialdini, Richard J. Borden, Avril Thorne +3 · 2,311 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Animal and Plant Science Education #Field (mathematics) #Football #Glory #Law #Media Influence and Health #Optics #Psychology #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.34.3.366
published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34(3), 366-375 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 1976/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
The tendency to in reflected (BIRG) by publicly announcing one's associations with successful others was investigated in three field experiments. All three studies showed this effect to occur even though the person striving to bask in the glory of a successful source was not involved in the cause of the source's success. Experiment 1 demonstrated the BIRG phenomenon by showing a greater tendency for university students to wear schoolidentifying apparel after their school's football team had been victorious than nonvictorious. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this effect by showing that students used the pronoun tee more when describing a victory than a nonvktory of their school's football team. A model was developed asserting that the BIRG response represents an attempt to enhance one's public image. Experiments 2 and 3 indicated, in support of this assertion, that the tendency to proclaim a connection with a positive source was strongest when one's publk image was threatened.