“Anything less than perfect is failure.” Hewitt & Flett’s self-oriented perfectionism dimension: you set the bar, you move it up every time you clear it, and the gap between your output and your standard is never allowed to close.
WIPE_SCRIPTS
The Science of Perfectionism: Why High Standards Are Not the Problem
13 scripts this research explains — 'I just have high standards' is the most common reframe of perfectionism — and the one that research most clearly challe
“Everyone is watching and they’re all finding me lacking.” Socially prescribed perfectionism — Hewitt & Flett’s most toxic dimension — means you’ve absorbed the belief that other people demand perfection from you. Curran & Hill’s 2019 meta-analysis found it rose ~33% over 27 years, driven by social comparison culture and social media.
The Audience Verdict
“If I never finish it, no one can judge it — and I stay someone who could have been great.” The perfectionism-procrastination link: not starting protects the perfect self-image. Failure is impossible if nothing is ever fully tried. The Frost FMPS error-concern subscale captures this — it’s not high standards, it’s fear of what a mistake would mean about you.