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Why the better-than-average effect is a worse-than-average measure of self-enhancement: An investigation of conflicting findings from studies of East Asian self-evaluations

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Abstract

A recent meta-analysis on cross-cultural studies of self-enhancement finds that evidence for East Asian self-enhancement is consistently apparent only in studies where participants compare themselves to the average other, aka the “Better-than-Average” Effect (BAE). However, prior research has suggested that the BAE may conflate motivations to view the self in a positive light with non-motivational factors, such as a tendency to evaluate “everyone as better than average” [EBTA; Klar Y, Gilladi EE (1997) J Personal Soc Psychol 73:885–901]. In two studies, European-Canadian, Asian-Canadian, and Japanese students were asked to evaluate themselves as well as a fictitious student compared to the average. Replicating prior research, evidence for Japanese self-enhancement was found with the BAE, albeit weaker than Canadians. However, in the measures where the EBTA effect was circumvented, self-enhancement was no longer evident among Japanese. Likewise, within the BAE method, prior research has found that East Asians self-enhance more for important than unimportant traits. When the EBTA effect was circumvented this correlation was also significantly reduced. Findings from this research converge with other sources of evidence that East Asians do not appear to be motivated to self-enhance.

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Notes

  1. The FBAE is commonly called an optimism bias or unrealistic optimism in the literature. We have used the term FBAE here to identify the optimism bias method that makes direct comparisons with average others

  2. Average within-respondent correlations are reported in their original form, however, the analyses are conducted on correlations that have been converted into Fisher’s Z-scores.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by Grants from NIMH (R01 MH060155-01A2) and SSHRC (410-2004-0795). We are especially grateful to Yumi Endo, Mikitoshi Isozaki, Mayumi Karasawa, Minoru Karasawa, Etsuko Kato, Shinkichi Sugimori, and Masaki Yuki for their help in recruiting Japanese participants. We would also like to thank the members of the Culture and Self Lab for their insightful comments on this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4

    Takeshi Hamamura & Steven J. Heine

  2. Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan

    Timothy R. S. Takemoto

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  1. Takeshi Hamamura
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  2. Steven J. Heine
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  3. Timothy R. S. Takemoto
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Correspondence to Steven J. Heine.

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Hamamura, T., Heine, S.J. & Takemoto, T.R.S. Why the better-than-average effect is a worse-than-average measure of self-enhancement: An investigation of conflicting findings from studies of East Asian self-evaluations. Motiv Emot 31, 247–259 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-007-9072-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-007-9072-y

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