“…The ability to bask in the reflected glory of another person, rather than making a threatening upward social comparison (e.g., Tesser, Millar, & Moore, 1988;Wood, 1989), is dependent on closeness to the relationship partner (Gardner, Gabriel, & Hochschild, 2002;Lockwood, Dolderman, Sadler, & Gerchak, 2004). Similarly, people only experience self-growth in friendships and romantic relationships when they are comfortable with closeness (Gabriel et al, 2008) and when they experience affirmation and positive regard from their relationship partner (Drigotas et al, 1999;Murray, Holmes, & Griffin, 1996). Unfortunately, low self-esteem people, who need these benefits the most, are less willing than high self-esteem people to risk closeness due to the prospect of rejection (Murray et al, 1998;Murray et al, 2000;Murray et al, 2002;Murray et al, 2008).…”