{
  "id": "selling-yourself-short.underpriced",
  "term": "selling yourself short",
  "sense": "underpriced",
  "pos": "verb",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 15,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A self-model reading its own worth below what its reach would get from others, so it asks them for less than they would give.",
  "folk_gloss": "undervaluing your own abilities or worth, so you ask for or attempt less than you could",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "reach.action",
      "value.worth",
      "others.distinct-entities",
      "read.information",
      "below.spatial",
      "get.acquisition",
      "asks.social",
      "give.transfer"
    ],
    "interaction": "An under-reading of the self is carried into an exchange; others' models would have granted more, but the claim is made from the self-model, so the lower price is the one that gets set.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "an under-reading that becomes a price",
      "a wall set by the self on what others give",
      "loss made at the point of asking"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Salary negotiation guides warn candidates against selling themselves short by naming a figure below the usual pay for their role.",
      "domain": "work"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "impostor-syndrome.validation",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "impostor syndrome keeps the skill out of the self-model; selling yourself short admits it but prices it low when claiming from others"
    },
    {
      "id": "insecurity.proximity",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "insecurity reads a wall as near; selling yourself short reads the worth as low and acts on it in an exchange"
    },
    {
      "id": "learned-helplessness.under",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "helplessness under-reads the reach of action; selling yourself short under-reads the worth others would grant"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "sell oneself short",
    "sell themselves short",
    "sell yourself short",
    "selling herself short",
    "selling himself short",
    "selling themselves short",
    "selling yourself short",
    "sold herself short",
    "sold himself short",
    "sold themselves short",
    "sold yourself short"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-selling-yourself-short.underpriced"
}