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 We are all less risky and more skillful than our fellow drivers: Replication and extension of Svenson (1981)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Koppel ◽  
David Andersson ◽  
Gustav Tinghög ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll ◽  
Gilad Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Driving Safety ◽  
Average Effect ◽  
Total N ◽  
Response Scales ◽  
Driving Skill ◽  
Average Person ◽  
Different Response ◽  
Better Than

The better-than-average effect refers to the tendency to rate oneself as better than the average person on desirable traits and skills. In a classic study, Svenson (1981) asked participants to rate their driving safety and skill compared to other participants in the experiment. Results showed that the majority of participants rated themselves as far above the median, despite the statistical impossibility of more than 50% of participants being above the median. We report a preregistered, well-powered (total N = 1,203), very close replication and extension of the Svenson (1981) study. Our results indicate that the majority of participants rated their driving skill and safety as above average. We added different response scales as an extension and findings were stable across all three mesaures. Thus, our findings are consistent with the original findings by Svenson (1981). Materials, data, and code are available at https://osf.io/fxpwb/

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.

Using Connectionist Modules for Decision Support

1990 ◽  
Vol 29 (03) ◽  
pp. 167-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Hripcsak
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Posterior Probability ◽  
Back Propagation ◽  
Connectionist Model ◽  
Test Set ◽  
The Third ◽  
Independent Test ◽  
Better Than

AbstractA connectionist model for decision support was constructed out of several back-propagation modules. Manifestations serve as input to the model; they may be real-valued, and the confidence in their measurement may be specified. The model produces as its output the posterior probability of disease. The model was trained on 1,000 cases taken from a simulated underlying population with three conditionally independent manifestations. The first manifestation had a linear relationship between value and posterior probability of disease, the second had a stepped relationship, and the third was normally distributed. An independent test set of 30,000 cases showed that the model was better able to estimate the posterior probability of disease (the standard deviation of residuals was 0.046, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.046-0.047) than a model constructed using logistic regression (with a standard deviation of residuals of 0.062, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.062-0.063). The model fitted the normal and stepped manifestations better than the linear one. It accommodated intermediate levels of confidence well.

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
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