Self-esteem under the microscope

The term brings to mind positive-thinking memes with sunset backdrops and swirly lettering. But could I you sum up self-esteem when asked as part of a pub quiz? Didn't think so. And there's more at stake here than winning the points.

- GEMMA ASKHAM

It was August 2016, and while you were probably cosying up to a merlot by the fire, 26 women and 14 men were lying in MRI scanners in a University College London lab. Earlier that month, researchers had used questionnaires to create Bumble-style profiles for each of the 20-something participants, including details of their worst qualities, biggest fears and greatest bugbears (those who eat Big Macs while driving, that kind of thing). Now, lying on their backs, stock-still to give the machines the best chance of capturing brain activity, and peering up at a computer screen, they were to go through an experiment that makes Love Island seem as supportive as Queer Eye. Each in turn would discover if 184 strangers had given them a thumbs up or thumbs down when shown their profile and asked: do you think you could be friends with this person?

The goal was a lofty one: computational neuroscientists Geert-Jan Will and Robb Rutledge were aiming to pin down, in scientific terms, a concept that has both CEOs and teenagers in its grip. Anyone who was ever picked last in PE class, has had an existential crisis in a changing room or replayed a messed-up job interview on a loop like a boomerang in their brain will know all too well the feeling the researchers were trying to replicate that day: the notion is low self-esteem and the equation to explain what it is and how it works, is a work in progress.

BY DEFINITION