Abraham Tesser (born May 24, 1941) is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. His research has made significant contributions to several areas in the field of

social psychology Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field ...

. He created the self-evaluation maintenance model, a theory in

that focuses on the motives for

self-enhancement Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about themselves and to maintain self-esteem. This motive becomes especially prominent in situations of threat, failure or blows to one's self-esteem. Self-enhancement in ...

Biography

Abraham Tesser received a BA from

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

in 1962 and an MS in 1965 and

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1967 from

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

. He is now a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus from the

where he held a faculty position (1967–1999) and directed the Institute for Behavioral Research (1984–1994). His research has been supported by the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

and the National Institute for Mental Health. He served in the field of

as president in 2000 of the

Society for Personality and Social Psychology A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. So ...

and as Editor of the

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology The ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Psychological Association that was established in 1965. It covers the fields of social and personality psychology. The edi ...

. In 2025, Tesser was recognized as
Distinguished Alumnus by Purdue University
His major research contributions have been in the areas of

interpersonal communication Interpersonal communication is an exchange of information between two or more people. It is also an area of research that seeks to understand how humans use verbal and nonverbal cues to accomplish several personal and relational goals. Communica ...

, attitudes and the

psychology of self The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive, Conative function, conative or affective representation of one's identity, or the subject of experience. The earliest form of the Self in modern psychology saw the emergence of two eleme ...

Research

Interpersonal Communication: The Mum Effect

This research, in collaboration with Sidney Rosen, identified (and named) a robust tendency for persons to avoid communicating information with negative consequences (bad news) to the relevant recipient. A variety of explanations for the effect has been explored and reported.

Attitudes

:Self-Generated attitude change (attitude polarization). This research suggests that simply thinking about an attitude object, even with no new information or change in circumstances, can result in attitude change usually in a more extreme direction (polarization). Such changes seem to depend on the presence of cognitive schemas. :Attitudes and Behavior. The Mismatch Model. Self-reported attitudes might primarily reflect a person's feelings or her beliefs about an attitude object Her behavior with respect to the object might also primarily reflect feelings about the object, i.e., consummatory behaviors, or beliefs about the object, i.e., instrumental behaviors. According to the Mismatch Model the relationship between attitudes and behavior is maximized when there is a match between the attitude component reflected in the self-report and the component reflected in the behavior. :Attitude Heritability. Attitudes differ in the extent to which they are influenced by genetic factors, i.e., their heritability. Attitudes with greater heritability are more accessible, more resistant to social influence and more influential in attracting/repelling us to/from others.

The Psychology of Self

:The

Self-evaluation maintenance theory Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) concerns discrepancies between two people in a relationship. The theory posits an individual will maintain as well as enhance their self-esteem via a social comparison to another individual. Self-evaluation refer ...

posits two processes, the comparison process and the reflection process, to explain how the outstanding performance of others can affect our own behavior. When a close other, e.g., a friend or relative, performs better in a highly self-relevant domain then self-evaluation is likely to suffer by comparison. If the performance domain is low in self-relevance then the reflection process is likely to be more important and the outstanding performance of a friend or relative boost self-evaluation. Assume that people want to maintain a positive self-evaluation. Now, predictions can be tested about when people will alter the self-relevance of a performance domain, how close (or distant) they will feel toward another, and whether they will facilitate or hinder the performance of another. The emotions underlying these behavioral changes have also been explored. The model has been extended to recognize the effects of committed relationships, e.g., marriage, by Stephen Beach. :Confluence and the Self Zoo. The number of processes that affect self-esteem is large and diverse, a "self zoo". Using three broad classes of mechanisms, cognitive consistency, social comparison and value expression, the "confluence" work shows that many of these mechanisms are not independent. For example, a threat to self-esteem via social comparison can be addressed via increases in cognitive consistency or value expression and vice versa.Tesser, A., Crepaz, N., Collins, J. C., Cornell, D. & Beach, S.R.H. (2000). Confluence of self defense mechanisms: On integrating the self zoo. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1476-1489.. The element that connects these processes is posited to be negative affect.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesser, Abraham Living people American social psychologists University of Georgia faculty 1941 births