Self-Esteem Is an Adaptive Device in Societies High in Relational Mobility

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Seven multi-method studies, such as a secondary analysis of public domain data, questionnaire survey, quasi-experiment, and laboratory experiment, examined social functions of self-esteem. Results indicate that 1) the effect of self-esteem on happiness is stronger in social contexts high, rather than low, in relational mobility, where there is a greater amount of choices in interpersonal relationships, 2) self-esteem has an "interpersonal booster-function" (i.e. motivating individuals to approach strangers), which is adaptive in social contexts high in relational mobility, and 3) self-esteem mediates the process in which feeling of loneliness decreases happiness, particularly in social contexts high in relational mobility.