There Goes My Hero: The Role of Exemplars in Identity Formation

In this paper, we argue that who one is and wants to become is closely related to whom one admires. Although the links between identity formation and exemplars have been largely neglected, we claim that integrating both literature studies provides interesting new insights. First, exemplars can play an important role in and constitute a powerful tool for people’s identity construction. Second, insights into identity formation processes can help better understand how people select, evaluate, and replace their exemplars. Third, we explore the ways in which external factors such as possible selves, social relationships, and emotions affect both exemplars and identity formation. Finally, we discuss how stigma, marginalization, and do-gooder derogation can prevent exemplars from playing a positive role in identity formation. By integrating existing perspectives on identity formation and exemplars, we explain how people obtain their personal commitments and what exactly can inspire their attempts to change or maintain their identity.

There Goes My Hero: The Role of Exemplars in Identity Formation Identity development can be boiled down to a daunting set of questions with complicated answers: who am I, where do I want to go with my life, and what do I stand for?The answers to those questions change throughout life as new experiences, challenges, and opportunities emerge.One strategy for searching for one's identity is to follow in the footsteps of others, like one's family or friends.But one can also look up to and try to emulate people whom one admires for moral reasons.In this paper, we focus on exemplars: people who serve as ideal models for the kind of person to become and the decisions to make in life.Although understudied, learning more about people's exemplars may help us understand better why people are the way they are, how they came to be that way, and where they are and might be going.The literature on identity formation and the literature on exemplars have independently focused on similar questions concerning who people want to become and what they aspire to.
In this paper, we aim to integrate both literature studies.First, we argue that exemplars can play a key yet largely neglected role in identity formation and that engaging with exemplars constitutes a powerful tool for people figuring out who they are and who they want to become.Second, we describe how the identity formation literature can also be informative for understanding processes through which exemplars are selected, evaluated, maintained, and replaced.In this respect, the integration of both literature studies can help us understand how, when, and for whom exemplars have a valuable role to play.It can yield new answers to the questions of where individuals obtain their identity content and what exactly inspires their attempts to change or maintain their current identity.
For these purposes, we will first discuss the main insights from both the literature studies on identity formation (There Goes My Hero: The Role of Exemplars in Identity Formation) and on exemplars (Insights about Identity Formation).Next, we will describe our views on what individuals' exemplars can tell us about their identity formation processes and what the latter can tell us about their exemplars and the ways they engage with them (Insights about Exemplars).In the next step, we will discuss external factors affecting both exemplars and identity formation, potentially causing them to become associated (What Exemplars Can Tell about Identity Formation Processes and Vice Versa), followed by reflections on the challenges and risks regarding the role of exemplars in identity formation (Factors that Affect Both Exemplars and Identity Formation Processes).Finally, we will outline our conclusions on what can be gained if the largely separate literature studies on identity formation and exemplars were to be more closely integrated.

Insights about Identity Formation
The concept of identity is used in a variety of academic disciplines (Adams & Marshall, 1996), but we will focus on conceptualizations used in psychology, psychiatry, and sociology.These conceptualizations center on questions of why people are the way they are, how they see themselves, and what they plan for their future.These questions are complex and have led researchers to focus on specific aspects of individuals' identities, such as moral identity, sexual identity, religious identity, and ethnic and racial identity.From a bird's-eye view, identity research is often subdivided into research on social identity (e.g., sexual identity, ethnic and racial identity) and personal identity (i.e., features of identity that are more unique to the individual).This distinction is imperfect as identities are always both social and personal (Vignoles, 2018), but it provides a useful way to group together different research traditions.In this paper, we largely focus on a single theoretical perspective in personal identity research: Erik Erikson's perspective.
Erikson described identity as ". ..the accrued confidence that the inner sameness and continuity prepared in the past are matched by the sameness and continuity of one's meaning for others" (Erikson, 1950(Erikson, /1993, pp. 261-262), pp. 261-262).This work, in turn, is grounded in psychoanalytic ego psychology and therefore comes with quite specific philosophical underpinnings (Côté, 2009).In Erikson's (1950Erikson's ( /1993) ) words, the ego qualities he lists are "criteria (identity is one) by which the individual demonstrates that his ego, at a given stage, is strong enough to integrate the timetable of the organism with the structure of social institutions" (p.246).Therefore, Erikson deems some qualities desirable and the absence of those qualities undesirable.In addition, he directly implicates the importance of broader societal processes in his theorizing on identity formation.Erikson (1950Erikson ( /1993)), for example, claims that, when searching for an identity, an adolescent "is eager to be affirmed by his peers, and is ready to be confirmed by rituals, creeds, and programs which at the same time define what is evil, uncanny, and inimical" (Erikson, 1950(Erikson, /1993, p. 263), p. 263).Given these references to societallevel influences centering around values, the broader Eriksonian framework provides many leads for linking the study of exemplars and the study of identity.In fact, Erikson (1950Erikson ( /1993) ) himself made a direct link by describing how, in their search for an identity, individuals "are ever ready to install lasting idols and ideals as guardians of a final identity" (p.261).
Although the broad theoretical assertions by Erikson are rich, they have been difficult to apply in empirical research.For that reason, several research endeavors have focused on identity constructs which can be broadly divided into components of distinctiveness (i.e., emphasizing uniqueness relative to others), coherence (perceiving different parts of one's identity as a logical whole), and continuity (believing that who one is today is logically linked to who one was in the past and will be in the future) (Pasupathi, 2014;van Doeselaar et al., 2018).In particular, the continuity component is the most frequently studied (van Doeselaar et al., 2018).Within this component, the most prominent and currently popular work builds on James Marcia's (1966) dimensions of commitment (i.e., whether individuals have made choices in certain life domains and engage in activities to implement these choices) and exploration (i.e., how individuals reflect on, compare, and consider several potential commitments before picking one).Based on interview data examining commitment and exploration processes, individuals can be grouped into identity status clusters (for an overview, see Negru-Subtirica &  Klimstra, 2021).For example, someone with a high level of commitment obtained after exploration would be classified in an "achievement" cluster, whereas someone with weak commitments and no present exploration would be classified as "diffused." Later iterations of this model were more specific and, for example, distinguished between depth and breadth of exploration (Grotevant, 1987).Depth of exploration refers to the degree to which a person reflects on a particular choice in multiple ways, whereas breadth refers to the variety of options a person considers.In addition, a distinction was made between the degree to which one feels committed and the degree to which one identifies with or feels certain about such commitments (Bosma, 1985;Luyckx et al., 2006a).Specifically, someone might diligently show up at their job and perform very well (i.e., have a high level of commitment making) but not feel like that job represents who they are (i.e., have a low level of identification with commitment) (Luyckx et al., 2006a).Rooted in these ideas, two popular models of identity formation emphasize that identity formation is an ongoing developmental process guided by identity evaluation, or maintenance, and identity formation cycles (Luyckx et al., 2006b(Luyckx et al., , 2008;;Crocetti et al., 2008;Crocetti, 2018).While these models largely overlap, they differ in their terminology and dimensions.
The literature on the processes described in these models focuses more on individual differences but less on what it is that is being explored or committed to (Klimstra & Denissen, 2017).Even when focused on the latter, researchers typically only refer to rather broad domains such as education (e.g., den Boer et al., 2021), which can include many different aspects (e.g., a curriculum, a particular topic, one's fellow students, teachers, et cetera).More generally, this work shows little focus on the societal context and is less rich from a theoretical perspective compared to Erikson's work.
Therefore, we use Erikson's broader theorizing here as the starting point for discussing the links between identity and exemplars.That said, we will also refer to models of identity formation building on Marcia's (1966) work to provide more specificity to research on commitment and exploration processes and more concrete suggestions for further empirical research.For example, if we knew more about an individual's exemplars, we might be able to find out more about what it is that makes an individual explore and commit to a certain direction in life and what they are committing to.Much of the identity work inspired by exemplars could be agentic, purposeful, and conscious (i.e., active exploration and the process of consciously making and revising commitments) and could therefore be referred to as "identity construction" (c.f., Adams & Marshall, 1996;Bamberg et al., 2011) rather than the more generic concept of "identity formation," which also captures less conscious changes in identity.However, it is not always easy to differentiate between the two because individuals often resolve "identity crises" (i.e., change our identities) in less conscious ways (Côté, 2018).In this manuscript, we refer to clearly conscious efforts toward identity change as "identity construction" and use less specific terminology such as "identity formation" in other cases.

Insights about Exemplars
The literature on exemplars has mainly been written by psychologists and philosophers who focus on identifying what makes someone an exemplar and what it is exactly that people admire in them.Exemplars are people that others look up to, find admirable, and/or find inspiring.As a result, others often take a cue from them when looking for guidance or facing difficult or important choices in life.One can admire others for all kinds of different reasons: one's father for his cooking skills, one's grandmother for her story-telling capacities, and Malala Yousafzai for her bravery.In this paper, we focus specifically on moral exemplars: those people one admires for moral reasons, i.e., because they embody some virtue or consistently adhere to some (moral) value or principle that one endorses as well.
While sometimes used interchangeably (Kristjánsson, 2006), the philosophical literature typically distinguishes between exemplars and role models (e.g., Zagzebski, 2017, p. 132).Exemplars, on the one hand, are excellent, wellrounded, flourishing human beings of great character.They not only provide examples of how to perform particular tasks or actions but rather show us how to live our lives.Moral exemplars, specifically, those whom we focus on here, are those who excel in the moral domain and are thus admirable for moral reasons and capable of showing us the kind of moral beings we want to become (Zagzebski, 2017).According to Engelen et al. (2018, p. 348), moral exemplars exceed and transcend ordinary expectations in multiple ways.They are (more so than others) moved by ideals, encouraging and enabling them to rise above social standards of decency and sociality.But they can also excel by maintaining decency in the face of a societal decline of these social standards.
Role models, on the other hand, are often limited to a single domain of life.Feezell (2005) argues that role models refer to people who occupy particular roles that require them to model appropriate conduct in a more limited sphere of life.An experienced player on a sports team, for example, can serve as a role model for younger players by modeling how they should behave during matches.Exemplars, in contrast, are people who model how we should behave more generally (and not just on a sports field).A moral exemplar like Martin Luther King Jr. can then serve as a model for how one's life should be led.
People feel admiration for both exemplars and role models, which in turn typically leads to a desire to emulate them.To support the claim that admiration is key here, Moses Mendelssohn, for example, argues that admiration for another's character produces the wish "to be equally capable of such a sublime disposition" and, as a result, produces a "desire to emulate" (Lessing & Mendelssohn, 1972, p.168).This idea is supported by a range of psychological studies which have found a positive relationship between admiration and a desire to emulate (Algoe & Haidt, 2009;Aquino et al., 2011;Cox, 2010;Immordino-Yang & Sylvan, 2010;van de Ven et al., 2019).
Note that "the exemplary" and "the admired" do not coincide.Some people are exemplary but not admired widely (for example, because they are hardly known), and some are admired without being exemplary (for example, because they have celebrity status).Moreover, some people who are seen as moral exemplars may in fact be far from morally admirable.Followers of Adolf Hitler may well have viewed him as a morally inspiring and exemplary figure despite being a widely regarded example of moral evil.Here, we use "exemplars" as short for "those people admired by a person for moral reasons."As we want to understand the role such exemplars can play in the identity formation of those who admire them, we focus on those people whom other people regard as morally exemplary (regardless of whether they are in fact morally exemplary).
We thus take a broad approach here, diverging from the Eriksonian approach to identity as we avoid describing or prescribing who or what is "good," "bad," or "exemplary."This approach aligns with the literature on a concept related to identity: the self.In contrast to Eriksonian views of identity formation, which we described as having roots in Freudian ego psychology, the self-literature is mostly rooted in James's (1912) radical empiricism and his focus on the self's subjective aspects, such as perceptions and reflections.Even in the literature on "desired" versus "undesired" selves (e.g., Ogilvie, 1987), the focus is on what the beholder considers (un) desirable.Despite the differences between Eriksonian approaches to identity and more subjective approaches to exemplars (and the self or selves), which revolve around subjective attitudes such as admiration, we claim that there are fruitful ways to bring both literature studies together.
So we assume that people know and admire their exemplars and ask how all this can inform and guide their search for who they are or want to become.Our claims here are then not necessarily specific to moral exemplars.When we claim that admiration plays a role in identity formation, this applies to whomever one admires.Additionally, the exemplary and the admired are not the only ones to play a role in identity development.People's identities can also be significantly influenced by others close to them whom they do not view as especially admirable.One's friends and family, for example, may have a significant influence on one's moral values (Caravita et al., 2014;Spinrad & Eisenberg, 2019), even if one does not view them as especially morally virtuous.For the purposes of this paper, though, we will focus on the role that the objects of moral admiration play in identity formation.
While the role that exemplars and admiration can play in identity formation has not yet received much attention, some scholars have stressed the process of "modeling," in which "people identify with another person and internalize the role model's values, behaviors, or attitudes" (Weaver et al., 2005, p. 314).In effect, people form a mental picture of how an exemplar acts in various situations and then apply that image to the varied and novel situations they themselves encounter.In doing so, people use exemplars (and other role models) to help define themselves and guide their own behavior.In Insights about Exemplars, we further discuss what this process can look like and how the people we admire can play a role in our identity formation.
In ethics, learning from exemplars has been claimed to play a key role in moral or character education (Engelen et al., 2018;Kristjánsson, 2006) and in organizational contexts (Moberg, 2000).According to Aristotle (2007), witnessing the behavior of virtuous people (i.e., those who possess practical wisdom) can prompt a desire to emulate these people.In addition, the disposition to emulate more virtuous people is itself considered a virtue (Aristotle, 1985).Virtuous people can then serve as exemplary models that we can use in moral education and beyond to become more virtuous ourselves (Kristjánsson, 2006(Kristjánsson, , 2007)).Similarly, the ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi (2020) held that moral development begins through the emulation of moral role models.More recently, Zagzebksi (2017) has claimed that exemplars serve as models for our moral lives.While it would be a mistake to think that we should simply copy the behavior of moral exemplars (Thomas et al., 2019;Williams, 1995), the latter, according to Kristjánsson (2006, p. 41), can play a crucial role function to "help you arrive at an articulate conception of what you value and want to strive toward."In other words, exemplars can play an important role in shaping people's identities by providing models for how to live one's life.
In addition, exemplars can influence identity in other ways.As several philosophers have argued, there is an important difference between recognizing that someone is living an admirable and exemplary life and taking them to be an exemplar for your own life (Archer, 2019;Compaijen, 2017).For example, someone may admire the way Serena Williams dedicated herself completely to her sport but recognize that they themselves do not wish to dedicate their lives to excelling in one particular area, as Williams did with tennis.One can then admire Williams without taking her as a model for how to lead one's own life.That said, this admiration felt for Williams can influence one's identity in other ways.For adolescents, admiring a celebrity and developing a parasocial relationship with them (i.e., a one-sided relationship with a person of public interest) can play a role in identity development by presenting alternative forms of identity from those of their parents (Giles & Maltby, 2004;Gleason et al., 2017).Similarly, Erikson (1950Erikson ( /1993, p. 262, p. 262) stated that young people, when trying to establish a sense of identity, ". ..temporarily overidentify, to the point of apparent complete loss of identity, with the heroes of cliques and crowds."Despite the potential dangers of temporary overidentification, seeing identity expressed in a variety of ways can help people develop their own sense of identity, even if they do not seek to directly emulate any of these identities.
Not only can exemplars play a key role in identity formation and thus help inform the literature on the latter, but the converse also holds: insights into identity formation can help fill in gaps in the exemplar literature.Recent insights from the latter pertain to the characteristics of exemplars that are crucial for triggering admiration, inspiration, elevation, and the desire and motivation to change and grow.What people admire in exemplars differs across genders and cultures, with spirituality, for example, being more widely admired among young adults in Iran and autonomy and intellect among young adults in Russia (Robinson et al., 2016).The most commonly admired values and virtues are care (and generosity), resilience (and positivity), and drive (and determination) (Robinson et al., 2016).Focusing less on admired values and virtues and more on how exemplars are framed in stories, it has been shown that "relatability" matters: the more similar, in social or cultural background, people's exemplars are to themselves, the more inspiring they tend to be (Han et al., 2022).Moral exemplars who are perceived as relatable are thus likely "sources for moral elevation and pleasantness, which promote motivation to emulate moral behavior presented by the exemplars" (Han & Dawson, 2023, p. 1).
In addition to these (quantitative) studies of the characteristics shared by people regarded as exemplary, there is also a lot of work on the complex set of (developmental, structural, but often also personal and idiosyncratic) factors at play when people actually rise above themselves and become exemplary.For example, Colby and Damon (1994) provide an in-depth examination of which of these factors contribute to people becoming moral exemplars through an examination of 23 stories of moral leadership from the USA.In addition, the Journal of Personality devoted a special issue (2023, volume 91, issue 1) to a diverse set of "psychobiographies" of impactful political leaders, activists, academics, and artists.These in-depth portraits uncover "the personality dimensions, pivotal events, and/or sociocultural contexts that coalesce in a moment of time to galvanize a given individual into making a tangible difference in their community or society, or on the larger world stage" (Adler & Singer, 2023, p. 5).
However, there is little research on the factors that determine which people are (particularly) susceptible to developing such emotions, desires, and motivations when confronted with or thinking about exemplars.The literature on identity formation can lend a helping hand here.It suggests that one of these determining factors is the extent to which people are going through identity formation, maintenance, and evaluation cycles to find and reconsider (and, to a lesser extent, explore) commitments.People undergoing such identity processes will be more likely to seek out the guidance of exemplars and be open to engaging with and being moved by them.People who are in a period where their identities are somewhat stable will be less likely to use exemplars to determine their commitments but may use them to explore what it means to instantiate these commitments.Perhaps you already identify as an environmentalist, but your admiration for Greta Thunberg can help you explore what that commitment entails for your everyday decisions.Despite there being little research examining the links between exemplars and identity formation, there are several ways in which both arguably affect each other.Below, we further explore different aspects of what we claim is a two-way relationship between exemplars and identity formation.We will first discuss how exemplars may affect identity formation and then discuss how identity formation may affect how individuals engage with exemplars.
Exemplars Can Inform Identity Formation Processes Exemplars (and others who are admired) can play an important role when people are forming their identity.Erikson (1950Erikson ( /1993) directly pointed to this possibility, stating that adolescents "are ever ready to install lasting idols and ideals as guardians of a final identity" (p.261).This can be explained more concretely along the dimensions of the dual-cycle models by Crocetti et al. (2008) and Luyckx et al. (2008).First, when people are considering multiple commitments and deciding what to commit to (i.e., exploration in breadth), exemplars can prove useful guidance in figuring out which commitments ring most true to them.For instance, a person may come to realize that their admiration for Rosa Parks or Greta Thunberg means that they are (or identify as) the kind of person who cares about justice or the environment and should thus be committing to those values.Second, exemplars can also help with the (in-depth) exploration of one's commitments.If a person knows that they care about others in need or about the environment, their admiration for Bill Gates' generosity (in terms of his time, effort, and money spent on problems related to global poverty) or for Greta Thunberg's consistency in reducing her ecological footprint may help them further explore what their commitments might entail and imply.If they really care about those in need or about the environment, they might realize that they need to do much more than they currently do and start taking steps to become (even slightly) more like their exemplar.Third, exemplars can trigger and/or facilitate processes of reconsideration.For example, while a person may have always thought of themselves as an ambitious high achiever, reflecting on their exemplar may inspire humility or empathy with others.Additionally, a person may have always thought that putting their own interests first would get them ahead in life, but learning (more) about their grandmother or about Bill Gates might make them rethink this position and inspire them to be more concerned with others.

Identity Formation Processes Can Inform Exemplar Selection and Retention
Identity formation processes can help explain why, how, and whether individuals select and retain their exemplars.Erikson's (1950) ideas about childhood identifications may provide a first lead.Childhood identifications are commitments to ideas, ideals, and goals that children take over from authority figures (like parents or teachers).Take children making remarks such as ". ..but we don't believe in that, right, Mom?"After these identifications are questioned to at least some degree, which typically happens in adolescence, they qualify as identity commitments.Erikson's (1950) writings on identifications are acknowledged as representing the "role" part of role models in a literature related to that on exemplars (Gibson, 2004).While Erikson (1950) referred to identifications when there was an actual relationship between people and their exemplars, conceptualizations of exemplars emphasize that people's imagination and cognition suffice and that no actual relationship needs to be present.For example, people can take Nelson Mandela or Rosa Parks as their exemplar and take their cue from them when it comes to which ideas, ideals, and goals to adopt without this amounting to the kind of identification Erikson talks about as these people never actually met Mandela or Parks.Just like adolescents can still ask what their mom would think about something, so too can they ask what their exemplar would think or do, even if they never personally encountered them.
Much like childhood identifications, exemplars (or others who are admired) are likely to be questioned and potentially replaced at some point.Models of identity formation can help explain how this process works.Specifically, current exemplars can be compared to alternatives, which align with exploration in breadth (Luyckx et al., 2008) or reconsideration (Crocetti et al., 2008), both of which are part of so-called identity formation cycles.Next, people can reflect on whether some exemplar represents or embodies the ideals or other characteristics they care about or value.This aligns with exploration in depth and is part of the identity evaluation/maintenance cycle as described in both dual-cycle identity models (Luyckx et al., 2006b;Crocetti et al., 2008).Next, they could choose to commit to (i.e., commitment making) and identify with an exemplar and their values (i.e., identification with commitment), or they may return to the identity formation aspect of the cycle to compare and select from multiple exemplars.

Factors That Affect Both Exemplars and Identity Formation Processes
In the previous sections, we discussed how exemplars and identity formation may affect each other.However, there are also various ways in which they may both be affected by a third factor, resulting in the two becoming related without directly influencing each other.It is important to understand such processes to get a more nuanced picture and to avoid suggesting relationships that could, theoretically, be causal (i.e., like the associations described in Insights about Exemplars).Below, we discuss possible selves, social relationships, and selfrelevant emotions as factors that are important for both exemplars and identity formation.

Possible Selves
The notion of "possible selves" has been around since the early days of psychology as a separate discipline (James, 1910).Possible selves have been described as follows: As the elements of the self-concept that represent the individual's goals, motives, fears, and anxieties.They give precise self-relevant form, meaning, and direction to these dynamics.They are specific and vivid senses, images, or conceptions of oneself in future states and circumstances and are viewed as essential elements in the motivational and goal setting process (Oyserman & Markus, 1990, p. 113).
While not the same as exemplars, possible selves have been described as providing an impetus for working toward achieving goals (Oyserman et al., 2006), and as we described earlier, the research traditions on the self and on people seen as exemplars share their philosophical underpinnings.Given that there is research linking possible selves to identity formation processes, the concept can be useful in understanding how exemplars may affect identity formation.
A positive possible self, also known as a "hoped for" self (e.g., wanting to be like one's caring mother), reflects a future state one desires, whereas a negative possible self or "feared" self represents a state that one wishes to avoid (Oyserman & Markus, 1990).In a study on a predominantly white college student sample in North America, both the number of positive and negative possible selves were positively associated with identity exploration (Dunkel & Anthis, 2001).Thus, the more "hoped for" and "feared" selves individuals had, the more likely they were to report higher levels of identity exploration.
Exemplars have been described in very similar terms (Alfano & Sullivan, 2019).Specifically, positive exemplars are the figures we perceive as heroes and who motivate us to be (more) like them (cf."hoped for" selves).In contrast, negative exemplars are those we perceive as villains and who motivate us not to be like them (cf."feared" selves).Given this similarity to possible selves, exemplars likely are similarly associated with identity construction processes such as exploration.This could be because exemplars are selected after an exploration process, but alternatively, having an exemplar can facilitate a growing interest in this exemplar's ideals, ethics, and commitments, possibly fueling an individual's exploration of their own identity.Hence, the literature on possible selves further suggests that selecting different ways of engaging with exemplars can affect identity construction.

Social Relationships
Social relationship processes may also play a key role in the link between exemplars and identity formation.Identities are not construed by people alone but are negotiated in interpersonal processes (e.g., Hogan & Roberts, 2004).Therefore, the people around us shape who we are and who we want to become.Below, we show how social relationship theories provide promising avenues for understanding how exemplars and identity formation relate.

Social Modeling Processes
One way in which exemplars may trigger identity formation is via social modeling processes in face-toface settings as well as symbolic (e.g., televised, online) settings (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020).Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2001) stresses the power of observational learning (i.e., observing and replicating others' behavior), which occurs in the absence of sole performance (i.e., just trying and succeeding or failing).Exemplars can motivate an individual to set (more) ambitious goals and to try out new behaviors (Morgenroth et al., 2015;Schindler et al., 2013).To emulate the actions of an exemplar, a person must attend to them, remember what they did, be able to emulate their behavior, and be motivated to do so (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020).Observing the exemplar's successful actions and engaging in social comparisons (Schunk & Usher, 2019) may empower a person to believe that they can emulate these actions, especially if the actions are attainable and the exemplar is perceived to be similar to them.Enacting such behaviors can help a person build self-efficacy and affect motivational outcomes, thus triggering and shaping identity construction (Hogan & Roberts, 2004).
Changes in norms and values can also trigger identity formation.The norms and values of so-called "role aspirants"those exposed to, engaging with, and benefiting from role modelsare influenced by role models (i.e., leaders or exemplars) through processes of identification (adopting behaviors until they match their own value system) and internalization (being exposed to the social influence of the role model; Shamir et al., 1993).Here, inspiration is considered key (Thrash & Elliot, 2004).Motivation is also considered to play an important role here as not everyone is influenced similarly by exemplars (Morgenroth et al., 2015).Shamir et al. (1993) posit that the desire to emulate the behavior of a role model (or an exemplar) depends on the latter's attractiveness and the extent to which they represent desirable values.
The social context plays a decisive role in what makes an exemplar attractive.We discuss two ways in which to understand this claim.First, the social conditions of need fulfillment influence who becomes an exemplar.In addition to physical needs, humans have basic, innate psychological needs that need to be satisfied in order to obtain optimal well-being (self-determination theory, SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000).According to SDT, when these needs are frustrated, regulatory behaviors will be motivated in order to attain need fulfillment.For example, when feeling (over)controlled, people may seek out autonomy in their social environment.This pattern might occur on societal levels, too, which can trigger a social shift in the attractiveness of certain values and social groups (Staub, 1989).For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when societies started recommending people to socially distance and get vaccinated, many people may have felt that their autonomy needs were frustrated, and this may have motivated a turn toward anti-vax or even anti-government movements and parties.In this specific social climate, exemplars representing autonomy, including those with rather extreme views, were more likely to rise in popularity.
Second, social group memberships may influence people's selection of their exemplars.According to social identity theory, one will only modulate norms and values if exemplars relate to the role aspirant's salient and meaningful social identities (Turner et al., 1994).Given that people evaluate in-group members more positively than out-group members (a phenomenon called "in-group favoritism"; Brewer, 1979), it is likely that people are more likely to choose an exemplar from their own social group.Once chosen, exemplars of the same social group may trigger identity formation via serving as behavioral models in groups of people with the same social identity (Morgenroth et al., 2015).Applied to the Eriksonian framework, when people are searching for an identity, they may pick exemplars of their own group and adopt the exemplars' norms and beliefs, which influence their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Harris, 1995).As these groups assimilate to these exemplars, they increase in in-group similarity and distinctiveness (including in their identity) relative to other groups.Exemplars are also considered to be particularly powerful when group membership is shared.In-group members' evaluations of a person have been shown to be more impactful than those of the out-group (Reitz et al., 2016).What also increases the influence of in-group over out-group exemplars is that people perceive exemplars as more attainable (Turner et al., 1994) and relatable (Han et al., 2022).
In addition to determining an exemplar's attractiveness, the social environment also influences which exemplars people are exposed to.This may happen by chance or may result from steps that person has taken that will increase their chances of encountering (stories about) certain exemplars.For example, someone who cares about environmental issues may pay more attention to related news stories and follow environmental activists on social media.These actions make it more likely that they will be exposed to people who may serve as moral exemplars for environmental issues, such as Greta Thunberg.The information environment that people occupy may also play an important role in influencing which potential exemplars people are exposed to.Someone who consumes right-wing news sources will be exposed to different potential exemplars than someone consuming left-wing sources.The medium itself can also play a role here.Someone whose primary media source is right-wing newspapers is likely to be exposed to different exemplars than someone whose primary media source is right-wing social media influencers.

Social Interaction Processes
Exemplars may also trigger identity formation indirectly via social interaction processes (Reitz et al., 2014).The Social Relationship Model (e.g., Kenny, 1994) provides insights into why people develop different identities within the same group through interpersonal relationships.Dyadic relationships differ from one another in terms of dyad-specific interaction patterns that are determined by the characteristics of the actor, the partner, and the specific dyadic relationship (Kenny, 1994).For example, the degree to which a person whose exemplar is their mother incorporates "being competent" into their identity may depend on themselves (e.g., their personality, experience of success), on their mother (e.g., positive feedback), and on the unique characteristics of their mutual relationship (e.g., sense of connectedness).
General social relationship processes discussed in the literature might also apply if one knows one's exemplar personally.A positive relationship with one's exemplar might help facilitate identity formation.Social relationship partners derive a sense of connectedness and well-being through a transactional intimacy process that involves selfdisclosure and being responsive toward one's partner (Laurenceau et al., 2005;Reis & Shaver, 1988).It is conceivable that people's sense of self may be positively influenced as they obtain a sense of relational security (Clark & Lemay, 2010).For example, the more responsive a mentor is to their students' needs, the more likely it is that this student might incorporate the mentors' beliefs and norms into their selfconcept and change their behavior accordingly.Other powerful social interaction processes that might trigger identity formation, and within that active identity construction, are offering feedback, providing standards/goals, linking rewards with behavior, and providing opportunities for evaluating one's own behavior (Schunk & DiBenedetto, 2020).For example, a teacher might provide feedback on student progress and comment on how well they are learning, which makes them feel appreciated for their academic merit and hence motivates the adoption of self-views of competence.
Social interaction processes may also help explain the effects of exemplars on people they have no direct or only a parasocial relationship with.Effects of exemplars might also be more indirect, such as when the role aspirant observes or learns about the behaviors or experiences of the moral exemplar through stories of others.An integrative and unified framework for analyzing the complex dynamics of personality and social relationships (in short, the PERSOC model) provides a useful framework for understanding the interplay of personality and social relationships (Back et al., 2011).The PERSOC model specifies several factors via which social interactions with relationship partners can affect self-perceptions, including situation perception and behavioral expression.Dyadic relationships act as socializing agents that trigger identity construction via processes such as "consensual validation" or reality confirmation via comparison of perception (Collins et al., 2009;Simon et al., 2008).For example, a person's view on how to live a good life might be affected by the beliefs of a famous exemplar like Greta Thunberg.These beliefs can shape social interactions for people who aspire to the same exemplar).For instance, people may encourage behavior that is increasingly in accordance with the expectations and principles of their peers, which shapes their self-views (e.g., "I am a person who cares deeply about climate change"; see Reitz et al., 2014).
The Broader Cultural and Socio-Historical Context: Master Narratives It is important to note that identities and moral exemplars are tied to the broader cultural and sociohistorical context.This notion is heavily emphasized in Erikson's work, as he stated that "we cannot separate personal growth and communal change" and continued with "nor can we separate the identity crisis in individual life and contemporary crises in historical development because the two help define each other and are truly relative to each other" (Erikson, 1968(Erikson, /1994, p. 23), p. 23).In other words, individuals shape and are shaped by society.Erikson (1958Erikson ( , 1969) ) provided very specific illustrations of this in his psychobiographies of "Young Man Luther" and "Gandhi's Truth." Recent work portraying the socio-historical context of Germany and the implications of specific features of these contexts for research on ethnic-racial identity (Juang et al., 2021) provides a further illustration.Pointing to the controversies concerning "race" due to its use in the Nazi era and consequently a longstanding reluctance to openly acknowledge its relevance as a social construct, Juang et al. (2021) explain that an identity in which race plays a central role may be difficult to articulate.This is merely one illustration of how the sociocultural context is related to how identity constructs are used and not used to define identity.Because the importance of race as a social construct is increasingly emphasized in Germany and countries with a similar history in this respect (e.g., The Netherlands and Sweden), race likely will also become more central to youth's identities in such countries (Juang et al., 2021).In essence, this is an illustration of how the master narrative about race can differ across time and across cultures and thereby influence identity processes at an individual level.
Master narratives have been defined as "culturally shared stories that tell us about a given culture, and provide guidance for how to be a 'good' member of a culture; they are a part of the structure of society" (McLean & Syed, 2015, p. 320).Research on master narratives has been mentioned as one of the key ways to investigate how identity change and societal change are interconnected (Rogers, 2018), but for the purpose of this paper, a particularly interesting aspect of master narratives is that they are also directly relevant to moral exemplars.For example, Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin have long been celebrated as exemplars in the USA.However, the exemplary status of these historical figures is coming under increasing pressure as more attention is paid to their connections to colonialism and slavery.As a result, youth in the 2020s would probably be less likely to select Christopher Columbus and Benjamin Franklin as exemplars than youth in the 1950s would have.Questioning what and who counts as an exemplar is one way of questioning one's identity as a group or as a nation, or at least its prevailing master narrative.Similarly, considering alternative exemplars can function as a way to explore alternative identityconferring commitments, redefine the identity of the group, and thus "rewrite" the master narrative or replace it with an alternative.Thus, master narratives can serve as a bridge between societal-level change and individuallevel identity change, and who is selected as a moral exemplar may provide one way of illustrating what the current master narrative is.

Self-Relevant Emotions
Another point where identity formation and exemplars meet is in their connections to emotions.Emotions help people avoid threats and orient them toward opportunities in the environment that are critical for survival (e.g., Ekman, 1992).Emotions are brief in duration (Ekman & Davidson, 1994), and in contrast to affects and moods, they also have distinct elicitors, expressive features, phenomenologies, and action tendencies (Ekman, 1984;Keltner & Gross, 1999).Research suggests that emotions may be focal to identity processes (Pohling et al., 2018;Schindler et al., 2013;van der Gaag et al., 2017).Of course, emotions are likely to play a role in the other processes we have examined so far, like possible selves and social relationships.Here, though, we focus specifically on the role that emotions elicited by exemplars can play in identity formation.
Specifically, a characteristic or behavior of an exemplar can elicit an emotional experience in a person, which may then motivate that person to enact identity-relevant behaviors.Self-transcendent emotions (Stellar et al., 2017), including a subset of other-praising emotions like admiration, elevation, and gratitude (Algoe & Haidt, 2009), may be especially important for this link.Selftranscendent emotions typically occur when one is focused on another, and these emotions are thought to help create and strengthen social relationships through collaborating on shared goals and group cohesion (Stellar et al., 2017).
Admiration is a key other-praising emotion because it is typically experienced when witnessing someone showing exceptional skill or talent.Such exceptional behavior can motivate the person to emulate and praise the exemplar at hand (Algoe & Haidt, 2009), adopt their values and goals (Schindler et al., 2013), and work hard toward implementing them.Elevation is similar to admiration, but its elicitors are specific to only those exceptional skills or talents in the moral domain (Algoe & Haidt, 2009), which makes elevation particularly relevant to exemplars and their potential link to identity development.
Self-conscious emotions may also serve as a special link between exemplars and identity formation, specifically identity construction.Self-conscious emotions refer to emotions such as shame, guilt, and pride and require that a person evaluate their current behavior or self-view in reference to personally meaningful standards (Tracy et al., 2007).Once a person considers someone an exemplar, that person might examine and even reconsider their values, ideals, and commitments.A person can compare what they find important to what is embodied by their exemplar, and self-conscious emotions can occur depending on the extent to which a person has internalized their exemplar's values, ideals, and commitments and the degree to which they evaluate living up to them.You might come to realize, for example, that you largely fail to reduce your ecological footprint, despite your admiration for Greta Thunberg.If one determines that one does not yet live up to the standards of one's exemplar, emotions like guilt and shame may result, which may motivate the person to enact behaviors and re-evaluate the self in ways that produce changes in one's identity.
Another way that exemplars may be linked to identity through emotions is through strengthening one's resolve in what one finds to be important.For example, if one evaluates that one is living a life that aligns with the values, ideals, and commitments of one's exemplar, the self-conscious emotion of pride might be especially central for affirming one's identity.Similarly, experiencing the other self-transcendent emotions of gratitude, compassion, awe, and love may also be important for feeling positively and being committed to one's identity.

Exemplars as an Important Influence among Others on Identity Development
Now that we have presented how exemplars may affect identity development, we can also speculate on the magnitude of their effects (relative to other factors) on identity development.Are exemplars just one among many factors or do they have a unique influence?Based on anecdotal evidence from case studies (e.g., popular autobiographies) and (unpublished) participants' accounts in our work on narrative identity, we believe that there is variability across individuals such that there are substantial effects of exemplars on identity development for some people, whereas the effects are smaller for others.One factor potentially affecting these individual differences is identity style.Three broad social-cognitive styles that individuals use in the process of identity formation have been identified in the literature: an informational style, a diffuse-avoidant style, and a normative style (Berzonsky, 2011).An informational style characterizes individuals who take an open-minded approach and actively engage in exploration to further their identity development while being tolerant of accompanying ambiguities.Those with a diffuse-avoidant style tend to procrastinate and avoid identity work as much as possible.Finally, people with a normative style are likely most receptive to the influences of exemplars as they tend to adopt values, goals, and other identity content from others without much critical reflection.Given the conceptualization of this style, we would expect individuals with a more normative style to rely the most heavily on exemplars in their identity development.
It is important to note that contextual factors such as systemic factors and master narratives will also likely affect the degree to which exemplars influence identity (Vosylis et al., 2021).After all, the number well-known, relatable exemplars available for people from different groups varies.For example, historically, there has been a disproportionate amount of attention on exemplars who are white men, resulting in fewer relatable exemplars for those who do not identify with that demographic.As relatability is critical for the potential impact of exemplars, having fewer relatable exemplars available may limit the contributions of those exemplars to identity development for people from historically marginalized communities.
Additionally, it may be difficult to distinguish the effect of exemplars from other known predictors of identity development because those influences may get mixed up.Thus, the unique effect they would have in a statistical model that predicts differences between and within people in identity development may be limited, but exemplars' influences could help explain some known effects.For example, the previously mentioned effects of emotions such as gratitude and elevation on identity development (Pohling et al., 2018) may be attributed to the effect of exemplars that caused the emotions to arise.Similarly, the effects of supportive parenting on identity development (e.g., Beyers & Goossens, 2008) could be primarily due to individuals considering their parents to be exemplary people.
For the effect in the inverse direction, from identity development to exemplars, we expect more uniform findings across people and relatively large effects.The reason for this is that one's choice of an exemplar and the way one relates to their exemplar (even parasocially) would reflect people's identity.This could relate to the aforementioned identity styles (Berzonsky, 2011), with a normative style more likely to be associated with feeling strongly connected to exemplars.A normative style is also associated with a so-called foreclosed identity status (e.g., Schwartz et al., 2000) that is characterized by strong commitments that were not obtained through exploration (Marcia, 1966).The status of identity moratorium (i.e., low commitment and intense exploration; Marcia, 1966) should also be reflected by a focus on exemplars, given Erikson's (1950) aforementioned reasoning that because adolescents often go through a state of moratorium and thus feel uncertain, they may resort to idolizing certain individuals.Those individuals might be considered exemplars.Thus, identity statuses and the identity dimensions on which those are based could predict who has an exemplar and how one relates to their exemplar.Finally, identity content may be directly predictive of the kind of exemplar one picks.Role models, which are somewhat comparable to exemplars, are often picked because of their character attributes or for having a particular talent (Hammond et al., 2022).In research on identity content, personal characteristics and hobbies have also been identified as important in this respect (Johnson et al., 2022).

Challenges and Risks regarding Exemplars' Role in Identity Formation
Trying to emulate an exemplar or taking them as pivotal to one's identity can go awry.Below, we focus on two sets of challenges and risks related to exemplars and their potential role in identity formation: stigma and marginalization on the one hand and do-gooder derogation on the other.

Stigma and Marginalization
Erikson (1968) directly addresses the role of exemplars who are perceived as negative by significant others, who are often adults trying to communicate their beliefs and commitments to younger people but seeing their attempts backfire.Specifically, he used the concept of "negative identity" to refer to the identities of those who identify with everything that they had been told to be the least desirable or most dangerous and labeled those as "evil prototypes."Essentially, Erikson referred to exemplars with values that are at odds with the prevailing societal norms upheld by the dominant social group.Once such exemplars refer to actual individuals and their attributes align with stereotypes about the group in society to which one appears to belong, they may be further reinforced by one's environment (e.g., teachers, judges, and psychiatrists; Erikson, 1968).If stigma is internalized, it can contribute to what has been very descriptively coined the "why try?" effect (e.g., Corrigan et al., 2009).That is, when everyone expects you to be a certain way (e.g., a "difficult" or "badass" person), it can become rewarding, or at least less burdensome, to confirm rather than fight those expectations.Exemplars might play a role in this "why try?" phenomenon coming about.Erikson (1968Erikson ( /1994) ) further describes that constructing an identity with attributes that are valued positively at a societal level is hard under conditions of "economic, ethnic, and religious marginality" (p.88).He goes on to describe the details of how race plays into identity formation in an entire chapter, of which issues that are particularly current are highlighted in a recent article (Syed & Fish, 2018).Perhaps the most important or at least most generally applicable, notion in this work is that there is variation in one's identity options based on one's place in society.In other words, systemic inequality plays into identity formation (see also Rogers, 2018).This point is echoed in a broader model to explain the development of marginalized youth: the Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (P-VEST; Spencer et al., 1997).When youth are marginalized, it is not only identity options that are limited; potential exemplars that are relatable might be limited, too.Furthermore, broader society might disproportionally point out individuals from marginalized and systemically oppressed groups who hold values that are negatively perceived by society at large.Identification with negatively perceived individuals could represent one way in which individuals from marginalized and oppressed groups accommodate negative stereotypes.Erikson (1968) mainly discussed such accommodation processes and claimed that these could result in identity diffusion with weak commitments and little exploration.It is already debatable whether a so-called diffused identity is always "negative" (e.g., Vosylis et al., 2021), but Erikson (1968) also largely ignored an alternative way of engaging with social inequities: resistance (Rogers, 2018).
One way in which such resistance may affect the role of exemplars in identity construction is through a specific variant of the aforementioned modeling process.Individuals who resist oppressive social norms are likely to be perceived as exemplary, and identification with such exemplars may contribute to identity construction of marginalized youth and their allies.The concept of "negative exemplars" (Alfano & Sullivan, 2019) we mentioned before holds that individuals who are perceived negatively can also motivate people to prove that they are different, thereby stimulating the construction of an identity that would be valued more positively in broader society.Such processes have been described in research on ethnic and racial identity (Way et al., 2013) with, for example, a black female participant using rappers (no specific individuals) as an example of what she did not want to be or become.This illustrates how resisting oppression can lead to an identity status described by strong commitments formed after exploration, in spite of the more general trend of oppression and marginalization making identity formation more difficult (Spencer et al., 1997).

Do-Gooder Derogation
Presenting positive exemplars to people, for example, in educational settings, can also backfire.In what is known as "do-gooder derogation" (Minson & Monin, 2012), people perceive a positive exemplar (e.g., an environmentally conscious vegetarian) negatively, namely as a (public) condemnation of their own behavior (e.g., eating meat).People can react defensively to the threat of being judged, of losing the respect of others and their own sense of themselves as a morally good person (Cramwinckel et al., 2013).As a result, they may respond by criticizing or putting down the supposed do-gooder.The "implicit moral reproach (. ..) stings because people are particularly sensitive to criticism about their moral standing.Most individuals care a lot about their moral identity" (Minson & Monin, 2012, p. 201).Because people attach value to their commitments, the perceived implication that they are not good enough can trigger resentment (malicious) envy and threaten their selfworth.When this occurs, role models do not inspire in-depth exploration of their identity, making emulation unlikely.Instead, these exemplars may "appoint (these) perfectly well-meaning people to play the roles of adversaries" (Erikson, 1950(Erikson, /1993, p. 261), p. 261).
Potentially, one of two things can happen, both of which are the exact opposite of the kind of positive growth that exemplars are meant to trigger and facilitate.First, commitments and identities can become more entrenched.These backlash effects can be avoided by framing exemplars as relevant, i.e., similar to the person at hand, and attainable (Engelen et al., 2018;Han et al., 2022;Moberg, 2000) or by ensuring that people reflect on their own exemplars, thus largely avoiding perceived threat and envy.In general, relatable exemplars that are similar to oneself and that are imperfectly virtuous, i.e., having their own flaws and imperfections -"neither heroes nor saints" in the words of Stangl (2020) ensure that the psychological distance between people and their exemplars is not too big so that the latter inspire and not backfire.

Future Directions and Conclusion
We previously mentioned master narratives as a way to understand the linkages between moral exemplars and identity processes.One way to access master narratives is provided by the study of narrative identity (e.g., McLean et al., 2018), which is different from the approaches to identity that we focused on in the present study.A broader theoretical framework by McAdams (e.g., McAdams & Pals, 2006) in which narrative identity is framed as one "layer" of personality development provides numerous possibilities to situate the role of exemplars as well.McAdams (2009) already alluded to the role of exemplars in individual's narratives, but the layer of personality that contains goals and motives may provide further links.However, a thorough discussion of the role of exemplars in narrative identity and McAdams's broader framework could be the topic of a separate paper and is beyond the scope of the present study.Future research should use narrative identity approaches to further examine the role of social relationships with exemplars in identity formation because these hold great potential to obtain deeper insights into relevant social and psychological processes (van Doeselaar & Reitz, 2023).
To sum up, we have argued that we can learn a great deal about both identity formation and exemplars by looking at the relationships between the two.After examining the existing literature studies on, first, identity formation and, second, exemplars, we explored what can be gained by integrating these two literature studies.We argued that exemplars (or more broadly, the people one admires) can play an important role in one's identity formation by helping one to figure out what one's most important identity-conferring commitments are, explore what these commitments involve, and reconsider these commitments.Similarly, identity formation processes can help explain how people select and change their exemplars.Learning about and comparing possible exemplars can help people explore and reconsider their identities.Changing one's exemplar can be a way of responding to or facilitating a change in one's identity.Next, we explored how external factors such as possible selves, social relationships, and (self-transcendent and self-conscious) emotions can affect both exemplars and identity formation, creating further connections between the two.Finally, we looked at how stigma, marginalization, and do-gooder derogation can prevent exemplars from playing a positive role in identity formation.With this, we hope to have brought the literature studies on identity formation and moral exemplars closer together, thereby stimulating research that could increase knowledge of both of these concepts.
Just like Martin Luther King can help me find out what kind of moral person I want to become, my admiration for my dad's cooking can help me figure out what to value and do in life, even in the absence of moral considerations.