Looking-glass self

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The term looking-glass self was created by American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in 1902,^[1] and introduced into his work Human Nature and the Social Order. It is described as our reflection of how we think we appear to others.^[2] Cooley takes into account three steps when defining "the looking glass self". Step one is the imagination of our appearance from another person’s perspective. Step two is the imagination of the person's judgment of us. Step three is an emotional reaction such as pride or shame, based on the judgment attributed to the other person. ^[3]

According to Lisa McIntyre's The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology, the concept of the looking-glass self expresses the tendency for one to understand oneself through the perception which others may hold of them.^[4]

The result of the three step process is that individuals may change their behavior based on what they feel other people think about them, even if not necessarily true. In this way, social interaction acts as a "mirror" or a "looking-glass", since one's sense of self and self esteem is built off of others. For example, an individual may walk into a job interview with confidence and attempt to display this confidence. A person in this situation most often examines the reactions of the interviewers to see if they are positively or negatively reacting to it. If the individual notices positive reactions, such as nodding heads or smiles, this might further develop the individual's sense of self-confidence. If the individual notices negative reactions, such as a lack of interest, this confidence in self often becomes shaken and reformed in order to better oneself, even if the perceived judgments were not necessarily true.