There are several issues that I don't agree with, in the myth 3. While there are many factors that contribute to the self-esteem of the people and there are several "types" of self-esteem (implicit and explicit) we cannot say that self-esteem is always effect of some other external cause. It is true that it is a myth that high self-esteem always result with good behavior, but it is not true that low self-esteem has positive side. I know that one PhD said that low self-esteemed people are better in a relationship than high self-esteemed people, because they are more loyal, but I don't remember that she had evidence for her claim. This study should also confirm that self-esteem doesn't make people act better. Because of their behavior and other circumstances they raise their self-esteem, or just have some kind of unrealistic self-esteem. The authors of the same study don't distinguish high self-esteem with narcissistic personality disorder. So after all, high-self esteem can be cause of better relationship, better charm, better communication skills and greater sense of strong character. People can express better their intelligence when they are relaxed and have realistic view of their capabilities so we cannot say that there is not difference between good high self-esteem, and low self esteem. High self-esteem is always better.
The antisocial/social behavior depends more of the morals, worldview and the temperament (character) of the person, not the high/low self-esteem. There are passive-aggressive low self-esteemed people, and aggressive high self-esteemed people. This study (only myth 3) has some misleading and fancy statements that are not enough evidence-based according to my opinion. It sounds interesting because it is "contra" of the popular high self-esteem movement. It is dumb to believe that self-esteem is the cause of everything, but our self-esteem has great influence in our lives.
I will give you an example:
Walk in a bar, insecure about yourself. Try a conversation with a woman/man.
You are going to sound very bad and non-charming. But if you feel secure and good about
yourself the odds for you to make better conversation with that person are better.
There are many factors that can cause low self-esteem and there are many psychological dysfunctions caused by low self-esteem.
So low self-esteem might lead to many great psychological problems. Low self-esteem can be caused by many other negative factors in our lives, so we are confronting with very complex issue that needs more research and understanding. The psyche is very difficult for analyzing and objective measuring, because there are many factors that we are not aware of when we make study about the "Self-esteem". People cannot know how others feel about self, and their self-worth, nor they can "measure" the self-esteem on some kind of self-esteem scale. For now there are little evidence based psychological studies (cognitive-behavior therapy, neuroscience and similar) because we still don't know what self-esteem really is, what is intelligence (EQ, IQ, and nurture/nature causes of intelligence) nor do we know what "illnesses" can be caused by low self-esteem.
