Pride
What does pride do to our choices?
Pride follows a success we credit to ourselves, and it shapes behaviour well beyond the moment. Students made to feel proud persisted longer at a dull task, people who imagined the pride of resisting a cake ate less than half as much as those who imagined shame, and people valued a box they had built 63 per cent more. Pride tied to superiority can mislead.
What the report found
- Pride has a body language the whole world reads. Athletes from more than 30 nations, including people blind from birth, raised their arms and pushed out their chests after winning. People recognise the posture in remote villages and in four year olds.
- Pride comes in two forms. One is the sense of accomplishment that follows effort; the other is arrogance about who we are. The first goes with respect from others and the second with dominance, though researchers still argue about how best to measure them.
- Pride keeps people going. Students made to feel proud of a performance persisted longer at a tedious task. People who imagined the pride of resisting a chocolate cake ate less than half as much as those who imagined the shame of giving in.
- We value what we make. People who assembled a plain storage box would pay 63 per cent more for it than people handed the same box ready made.
- Pride on show often backfires. Luxury buyers feel accomplished, yet in one study observers read the purchase as snobbish; humblebraggers are liked less than plain braggers; chief executives praised in the press paid more for acquisitions that lost shareholders money.
What is inside
- What pride is and why we have it
- Two kinds of pride
- Pride that keeps us going
- Pride on show
- When pride misleads
- Using pride well
Plus a map of where pride shapes everyday choices, a table of levers and a graded list of claims.
Who it is for
For marketers, product designers, managers, teachers, parents and anyone who wants to understand what pride does to choices.
How we work
Human Forces reports explain one deep need and the effects that grow from it. Every claim is graded Established, Emerging or Untested. Where researchers disagree, as they do on whether pride has two distinct forms, both sides are set out before we say where we stand.
Cite this report
The Why We Project (2026) Pride: The pleasure of having done well. Human Forces No. 11. Dubai: Why We Tech Ltd. Available at: thewhyweproject.com