Conventional wisdom has regarded low self-esteem as an im portant cause of violence, but the oppo- site view is theoretically viable. A n interdisciplinary review of evidence about aggression, crim e, and violence contradicted the view that low self-esteem is an im portant cause. Instead, violence appears to be most commonly a result of threatened egotism—that is, highly favorable views of self that are disputed by some person or circumstance. Inflated, unstable, or tentative beliefs in the self's superi- ority may be most prone to encountering threats and hence to causing violence. The mediating process may involve directing anger outward as a way of avoiding a downward revision of the self- concept.