Looking-glass self

Scholarlysociologypsychologyself

Etymology

Coined by American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in "Human Nature and the Social Order" (1902). "Looking-glass" is an old English term for a mirror. Cooley described a three-step loop: we imagine how we appear to others, imagine their judgment, and then feel a resulting emotion. Flagged as a coinage.

  1. noun phrase · /LOOK-ing-glas SELF/

    The idea that we form our self-image from how we imagine others see us.

    What it names

    The mirror-in-other-people’s-eyes through which identity is built — handy for seeing how much of "you" is a reflection.

    Example

    Teenagers are ruled by the looking-glass self, endlessly refracting themselves through what they imagine classmates are thinking.

    Related idea

    Compare the halo effect, which is how we misjudge others; the looking-glass self is about how their imagined judgments construct us.

See also

Code-switchingHabitusPersonaSpotlight effect