In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement

meta-analysis of published cross-cultural studies of self-enhancement reveals pervasive and pronounced differences between East Asians and Westerners. Across 91 comparisons, the average cross-cultural effect was d = .84. The effect emerged in all 30 methods, except for comparisons of implicit self-e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Heine, S., Hamamura, Takeshi
Format: Journal Article
Published: Sage Publications Inc. 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40792
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author Heine, S.
Hamamura, Takeshi
author_facet Heine, S.
Hamamura, Takeshi
author_sort Heine, S.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description meta-analysis of published cross-cultural studies of self-enhancement reveals pervasive and pronounced differences between East Asians and Westerners. Across 91 comparisons, the average cross-cultural effect was d = .84. The effect emerged in all 30 methods, except for comparisons of implicit self-esteem. Within cultures, Westerners showed a clear self-serving bias (d = .87), whereas East Asians did not (d = –.01), with Asian Americans falling in between (d = .52). East Asians did self-enhance in the methods that involved comparing themselves to average but were self-critical in other methods. It was hypothesized that this inconsistency could be explained in that these methods are compromised by the “everyone is better than their group’s average effect” (EBTA). Supporting this rationale, studies that were implicated by the EBTA reported significantly larger self-enhancement effect for all cultures compared to other studies. Overall, the evidence converges to show that East Asians do not self-enhance.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-407922017-02-28T01:47:08Z In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement Heine, S. Hamamura, Takeshi culture/ethnicity self/identity self-presentation meta-analysis of published cross-cultural studies of self-enhancement reveals pervasive and pronounced differences between East Asians and Westerners. Across 91 comparisons, the average cross-cultural effect was d = .84. The effect emerged in all 30 methods, except for comparisons of implicit self-esteem. Within cultures, Westerners showed a clear self-serving bias (d = .87), whereas East Asians did not (d = –.01), with Asian Americans falling in between (d = .52). East Asians did self-enhance in the methods that involved comparing themselves to average but were self-critical in other methods. It was hypothesized that this inconsistency could be explained in that these methods are compromised by the “everyone is better than their group’s average effect” (EBTA). Supporting this rationale, studies that were implicated by the EBTA reported significantly larger self-enhancement effect for all cultures compared to other studies. Overall, the evidence converges to show that East Asians do not self-enhance. 2007 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40792 Sage Publications Inc. restricted
spellingShingle culture/ethnicity
self/identity
self-presentation
Heine, S.
Hamamura, Takeshi
In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement
title In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement
title_full In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement
title_fullStr In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement
title_full_unstemmed In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement
title_short In Search of East Asian Self-Enhancement
title_sort in search of east asian self-enhancement
topic culture/ethnicity
self/identity
self-presentation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40792