The better-than-my-average effect: The relative impact of peak and average performances in assessments of the self and others

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 556-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elanor F. Williams ◽  
Thomas Gilovich
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Relative Impact ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Better Than

Replication and Extension of Alicke (1985) Better-Than-Average Effect for Desirable and Controllable Traits

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062094897
Author(s):  
Ignazio Ziano ◽  
Pui Yan (Cora) Mok ◽  
Gilad Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Interval ◽  
The Self ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Total N ◽  
Original Formula ◽  
Better Than

People tend to regard themselves as better than average. We conducted a replication and extension of Alicke’s classic study on trait dimensions in evaluations of self versus others with U.S. American Mechanical Turk workers in two waves (total N = 1,573; 149 total traits). We successfully replicated the trait desirability effect, such that participants rated more desirable traits as being more descriptive of themselves than of others (original: [Formula: see text] = .78, 95% confidence interval [CI] [.73, .81]; replication: sr 2 = .54, 95% CI [.43, .65]). The effect of desirability was stronger for more controllable traits (effect of Desirability × Controllability interaction on self–other-ratings difference; original: [Formula: see text] = .21, 95% CI [.12, .28]; replication: sr 2 = .07, 95% CI [.02, .12]). In an extension, we found that desirable traits were rated as more common for others, but not for the self. Thirty-five years later, the better-than-average effect appears to remain robust. All materials, data, and code are available at https://osf.io/2y6wj/ .

scholarly journals Self-Enhancement and Self-Protection Motives

2012 ◽  
pp. 302-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantine Sedikides ◽  
Mark D. Alicke
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Goal Pursuit ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
The Self ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Vital Functions ◽  
Self Protection ◽  
Better Than

People desire to maximize the positivity, and minimize the negativity, of their self-views. The tendency to exalt one's virtues and soften one's weaknesses, relative to objective criteria, manifests itself in many domains of human striving. We focus illustratively on three strivings: the self-serving bias (crediting the self for successes but blaming others or situations for failures), the better-than-average effect (considering the self superior to the average peer), and selective self-memory (disproportionately poor recall for negative self-relevant information). Nonmotivational factors (e.g., expectations, egocentrism, focalism, individuated-entity versus aggregate comparisons) are not necessary for the emergence of these strivings. Instead, the strivings are (at least partially) driven by the self-enhancement and self-protection motives, as research on self-threat and self-affirmation has established. The two motives serve vital functions: They confer benefits to psychological health and psychological interests (e.g., goal pursuit).

scholarly journals The Better-than-average Effect According to the Self-protection Motive in Morality: A Survey Study of Young Japanese Adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Ding ◽  
Motoaki Sugiura
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Japanese Adults ◽  
Self Protection ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Better Than

People tend to perceive themselves in a positive light. Typically, they believe themselves to be better than average in accordance with the better-than-average effect (BTAE). The BTAE has been examined with respect to social values (morality and competence) and motivations (self-enhancement and self-protection). Moreover, “competence BTAE” was found to be associated with personality traits while “moral BTAE” was not. However, it is not known whether the BTAE in four domains correlate with certain psycho-behavioral characteristics, particularly moral BTAE. In this study, we recruited 667 Japanese participants (302 males; mean age = 25.80 ± 2.80 years) to assess self- and average other-evaluations in four domains. Self-enhancement and self-protective motives were examined using positive and negative adjectives. We further explored the relationship between BTAE and 22 psycho-behavioral characteristics. The results revealed that moral BTAE only existed in the presence of the self-protection motive. A worse-than-average effect was found in the context of both motives for competence. In contrast to the BTAE in the other three domains, which showed correlations with various characteristics, “negative moral BTAE” was not associated with any psycho-behavioral characteristic. Our results demonstrated that moral BTAE existed only in the presence of the self-protection motive and was “uniquely prevalent”, i.e., was not associated with any psycho-behavioral characteristics. Thus, the psychological mechanisms underlying the negative moral BTAE may differ from the other three domains, potentially reflecting different sociocultural dynamics.

scholarly journals Predictors of Coping With Expectation Violation: An Integrative Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 108926802110241
Author(s):  
Martin Pinquart ◽  
Adrian Rothers ◽  
Mario Gollwitzer ◽  
Zahra Khosrowtaj ◽  
Martin Pietzsch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Healthy People ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
Integrative Review ◽  
Present Review ◽  
Relative Impact ◽  
Situational Characteristics ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Better Than

The present review investigates factors that predict three processes that lead to persistence versus change of expectations after confrontation with expectation violations, based on the violated expectation (ViolEx) model and related models. We address four groups of predictors: (a) characteristics of the expectation, (b) characteristics of the expectation-violating event(s), (c) broader situational characteristics, and (d) personality characteristics. The bulk of studies conducted in this area looked at expectation change in the direction of the experienced violation (accommodation) as their central dependent variable. The strongest empirical support was found for accommodation being less likely and minimizing of the potential impact of the discrepant information (immunization) being more likely to occur (a) after the reality turns out to be worse rather than better than expected, (b) if disconfirming events are more ambiguous, and (c) if depressed rather than healthy people are confronted with better-than-expected events. Given the high heterogeneity between studies on assessed predictors, we recommend a more comprehensive and unifying approach that tests the relative impact and the interplay of the whole range of predictors across paradigms.

SOCIAL LOAFING AND SELF-BELIEFS: PEOPLE'S COLLECTIVE EFFORT DEPENDS ON THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY DISTINGUISH THEMSELVES AS BETTER THAN OTHERS

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuelle Charbonnier ◽  
Pascal Huguet ◽  
Markus Brauer ◽  
Jean-Marc Monteil
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Loafing ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
Easy Task ◽  
Collective Effort ◽  
Better Than

An experiment tested whether the belief that one is better than others on performance aspects of the self moderates social loafing, the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually. French students performed an easy task either coactively or collectively. They were then asked to rate how they individuate themselves from others on personal abilities within various domains of social life. The loafing effect was especially strong in participants who perceived themselves as better than others, suggesting that self-beliefs related to one's feeling of uniqueness is a significant component of social loafing. This finding is discussed from the perspective of Karau and Williams' (1993) Collective Effort Model.

When Praising Yourself Insults Others: Self-Superiority Claims Provoke Aggression

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 1008-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolien Van Damme ◽  
Eliane Deschrijver ◽  
Eline Van Geert ◽  
Vera Hoorens
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Actual Decision ◽  
Better Than

We tested the prediction, derived from the hubris hypothesis, that bragging might serve as a verbal provocation and thus enhance aggression. Experiments 1 and 2 were vignette studies where participants could express hypothetical aggression; Experiment 3 was an actual decision task where participants could make aggressive and/or prosocial choices. Observers disliked an explicit braggart (who claimed to be “better than others”) or a competence braggart as compared with an implicit braggart (who claimed to be “good”) or a warmth braggart, respectively. Showing that explicit and competence bragging function as verbal provocations, observers responded more aggressively to the explicit and competence braggart than to the implicit and warmth braggart, respectively. They did so because they inferred that an explicit and a competence braggart viewed other people and them negatively, and therefore disliked the braggart. Rather than praising the self, braggarts are sometimes viewed as insulting others.

Study of Self-Propelled Pufferfish Driven by Multiple Fins: A Comparison Between Rigid and Deformable Fins

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoxin Li ◽  
Qing Xiao ◽  
Lijun Li ◽  
Hao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
The Self ◽  
Fish Swimming ◽  
Propulsion Efficiency ◽  
Live Fish ◽  
Body Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽  
Multi Body ◽  
Better Than

In this work, we numerically studied the steady swimming of a pufferfish driven by the undulating motion of its dorsal, anal and caudal fins. The simulations are based on experimentally measured kinematics. To model the self-propelled fish swimming, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool was coupled with a Multi-Body-Dynamics (MBD) technique. It is widely accepted that deformable/flexible or undulating fins are better than rigid fins in terms of propulsion efficiency. To elucidate the underlying mechanism, we established an undulating fins model based on the kinematics of live fish, and conducted a simulation under the same operating conditions as rigid fins. The results presented here agree with this view by showing that the contribution of undulating fins to propulsion efficiency is significantly larger than that of rigid fins.

Personal contact, individuation, and the better-than-average effect.

1995 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 804-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Alicke ◽  
M. L. Klotz ◽  
David L. Breitenbecher ◽  
Tricia J. Yurak ◽  
et al
Keyword(s):  
Personal Contact ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Better Than

scholarly journals RELATIVE IMPACTS OF DIFFERENT DIETS ON THE QUALITIES OF ERI SILK COCOON AND ERI SILK YARN OF FOUR DIFFERENT MUTANTS STRAINS OF PHILOSAMIA RICINI Bsd.

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. 77-81
Author(s):  
Akhilesh Kumar Gahlaut ◽  
Arjun
Keyword(s):  
Food Plants ◽  
Relative Impact ◽  
Shell Weight ◽  
Silk Cocoon ◽  
Average Production ◽  
The Status ◽  
Average Size ◽  
Eri Silk ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Silk Yarn

The relative impact of different food plants (diets) namely foliages of castor, kesseru , payam and Topioca plants on the four different mutant strain viz; yellow plain, yellow zebra ,G.B Plain ,G.B Zebra in respect of qualities of their eri cocoon and eri silk yarn have been evaluated under the reeling parameters.Result indicate that among the four different food plants like foliages of castor followed by kesseru have been found evidently better than the foliages of payam and Topiocal in respect of average cocoon weight (gm)4.10,3.55,3.98,3.10,Average shell weight (gm) 0.55,0.45,0.52,0.41,Average shell ratio 13.91,12.0,13.0,11.55,Average lengt- h of  silk yarn (mtrs) 2510,2350,2498,2285,Average size of erisilk(D)13D,11D,12D,19D,Average production of eri silk per hr(gm)13.70,12.50,13.10,11.95,Average tenacity of fibre (g/d) 14.0,11.0,12.0,10.0.As far as qualitative differences of all the four food plants in relation to qualities of eri cocoon and eri silk yarn are concerned the castor alongwith kesseru food plants have achieved the status of supremacy primary food plant and payam and tapioca the states of secondary food plants .These variation show that the qualities and production of eri silk cocoon and eri silk yarn depends on the different food plants.

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