Consensual Validation
People vary in their beliefs and attitudes about a variety of issues, ranging from the existence of God to whether transgender people should be allowed to go into public bathrooms that align with their gender identity (a topic that was in the media when we wrote this entry). People also have beliefs about themselves, which can be very holistic (I am a person of worth) to very specific (I have nice eyes). Regardless of the unique beliefs they hold, people want theirs validated; that is, they want to believe their beliefs are the correct ones. For most beliefs, people have no objective, external criteria to determine their correctness or superiority. Instead, people make social comparisons with others. The social comparison process is not unbiased, however. People strategically seek validation of their beliefs through consensus with others (i.e., consensual validation). It is more affectively rewarding to learn that friends, family, and potential acquaintances have...
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Hampton, A.J., Sprecher, S. (2017). Consensual Validation. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1287-1
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