Self-Enhancement Error Motivates Social Projection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Ryan Heck ◽  
Joachim Israel Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Need Satisfaction ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Judgments ◽  
Perceptual Accuracy ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Social Projection ◽  
Self Protection

Social projection is the tendency to assume that others are similar to the self, whereas self-enhancement is the tendency to see them as inferior. Although these concepts appear to be in conflict, we suggest that both can stem from the same motive of self-protection. In three studies, we show that respondents overestimate the prevalence of self-enhancement bias in others and predict that most self-enhancement entails an error in judgment. Critically, we find that social projection is strongest among those who learn that they have committed a self-enhancement error. Those who receive feedback saying that their positive self-evaluations are false project this outcome onto others. We also find that self-enhancement errors degrade perceptual accuracy. We discuss how self-protection motives affect both self-evaluation and social projection, and how social judgments that appear inductively rational may stem from arational processes of need satisfaction.

Self-Enhancement Error Motivates Social Projection

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 489-522
Author(s):  
Patrick R. Heck ◽  
Joachim I. Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Need Satisfaction ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Judgments ◽  
Perceptual Accuracy ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Social Projection ◽  
Self Protection

Social projection is the tendency to assume that others are similar to the self, whereas self-enhancement is the tendency to see them as inferior. Although these concepts appear to be in conflict, we suggest that both can stem from the same motive of self-protection. In three studies, we show that respondents overestimate the prevalence of self-enhancement bias in others and predict that most self-enhancement entails an error in judgment. Critically, we find that social projection is strongest among those who learn that they have committed a self-enhancement error. Those who receive feedback saying that their positive self-evaluations are false project this outcome onto others. We also find that self-enhancement errors degrade perceptual accuracy. We discuss how self-protection motives affect both self-evaluation and social projection, and how social judgments that appear inductively rational may stem from arational processes of need satisfaction.

The self-schema and addictive behaviors: Studies of alcoholic patients

2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Tarquinio ◽  
Gustave Nicolas Fischer ◽  
Aurélie Gauchet ◽  
Jacques Perarnaud
Keyword(s):  
Decision Time ◽  
The Self ◽  
Addictive Behaviors ◽  
Social Judgments ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Self Schema ◽  
Description Task ◽  
Positive Traits ◽  
First Interview

This study deals with the sociocognitive organization of the self-schema in alcoholic patients. It was aimed at understanding how the self-schema takes shape within the framework of social judgments known to be determinants of personality. Alcoholic subjects were interviewed twice, once during their first consultation for treatment and then again four months later after completion of treatment. Our approach was derived directly from the methodology used by Markus (1977) and Clemmey & Nicassio (1997) in their studies on the self-schema. The subjects had to perform three tasks that required manipulating personality traits with positive and negative connotations (a self-description task in which decision time was measured, an autobiographical task, and a recall task). The results of the first interview showed that 1. in their self-descriptions, alcoholics took more time than control subjects both to accept positive traits and to reject negative ones; 2. unlike control subjects, alcoholics considered more negative traits to be self-descriptive than positive traits, and 3. unlike controls, alcoholics recalled more negative traits than positive ones. By the second interview, the results for the alcoholic subjects on the autobiographical and recall tasks had changed: 1. they now described themselves more positively and less negatively than on the first meeting; 2. they recalled a marginally greater number of positive traits and a significantly smaller number of negative traits, and 3. the differences between the alcoholics and controls indicated an improvement in the alcoholics' self-perceptions.

I Like Her, Because I Like Myself: Self-Evaluation as a Source of Interpersonal Attitudes

2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Walther ◽  
Claudia Trasselli
Keyword(s):  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Learning Phase ◽  
The Self ◽  
Attitude Formation ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
False Feedback ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Evaluation Group ◽  
Group A ◽  
The Difference

Abstract. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that self-evaluation can serve as a source of interpersonal attitudes. In the first study, self-evaluation was manipulated by means of false feedback. A subsequent learning phase demonstrated that the co-occurrence of the self with another individual influenced the evaluation of this previously neutral target. Whereas evaluative self-target similarity increased under conditions of negative self-evaluation, an opposite effect emerged in the positive self-evaluation group. A second study replicated these findings and showed that the difference between positive and negative self-evaluation conditions disappeared when a load manipulation was applied. The implications of self-evaluation for attitude formation processes are discussed.

A regulatory focus approach to the self evaluation process

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Leonardelli ◽  
Jessica Lakin ◽  
Robert Arkin
Keyword(s):  
Regulatory Focus ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Evaluation

The ideal self is me: Deconstructing the self-evaluation process

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey L. Guenther ◽  
Kathryn Applegate ◽  
Steven Svoboda ◽  
Emily Adams
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Process ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ideal Self ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
The Ideal

scholarly journals Values and Virtues as Correlates of Quality and Stability of Romantic Relationships and Marriage in a Post-Socialist Transitional Society

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Maja Kus Ambrož ◽  
Jana Suklan ◽  
Dejan Jelovac
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
The Self ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Relationship Stability ◽  
Value System ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Empirical Survey ◽  
Transitional Society

An individual’s value system plays an important role in their intimate relationship or marriage. Most marital satisfaction research to date has been carried out in high-income liberal Western societies. We conducted an original quantitative empirical survey of virtues and values to examine their effect on relationship quality and stability in a sample of 511 respondents from Slovenia, a post-socialist society in transition. The results showed that respondents rated health, love, and safety at the top of their hierarchy of values. The key finding was that the presence of love was associated with an individual’s subjective perception of relationship quality but had no effect on the self-evaluation of relationship stability. In addition to love, both family safety and comfort were significant correlates of relationship quality while self-respect was negatively correlated with relationship quality. Only excitement was found to have a statistically significant effect on relationship stability.

An Objective Measure of the Self-Evaluation Motive

1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 873-874
Author(s):  
Lawrence R. Good ◽  
Katherine C. Good
Keyword(s):  
Objective Measure ◽  
Reliability Coefficient ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
True False

The development of a true-false inventory designed to measure need for self-evaluation produced a form having 25 items. A reliability coefficient (KR-20) of .79 was obtained for a sample of 177 undergraduates (88 men and 89 women).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document