Conclusion
While an actual definition for basking in reflected glory is hard to come by, everyone partakes in BIRGing. Whether it is the sticker on a parent’s van that says "Proud parent of an Honor Roll student" or having jerseys/posters of one’s favorite sports team, humans attempt to improve their self-esteem and self-worth through basking in other’s triumphs and broadcasting their association with powerful/successful people. Basking in reflected glory has the potential to create self glory and is connected with social identity theory.
There have been psychological studies done that confirm the ideas and theories of basking in reflected glory. The first major study was done by Cialdini as he researched BIRGing in winning/losing football fans. Research by Boen et al. has also confirmed the opposite of BIRGing, cutting off reflected failure (the idea that people tend to disassociate themselves with people of lower status). Basking in reflected glory is not necessarily negative unless it is taken to the extreme and a person only views themselves in terms of their affiliations with their BIRGing group. Increases in technology have led to an increase in the ability to bask in reflected glory; a person can now advertise their associations on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites.
Read more about this topic: Basking In Reflected Glory
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