Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
10-2011
Abstract
People’s self-perception biases often lead them to see themselves as better than the average person (a phenomenon known as self-enhancement). This bias varies across cultures, and variations are typically explained using cultural variables, such as individualism versus collectivism. We propose that socioeconomic differences among societies—specifically, relative levels of economic inequality—play an important but unrecognized role in how people evaluate themselves. Evidence for self-enhancement was found in 15 diverse nations, but the magnitude of the bias varied. Greater self-enhancement was found in societies with more income inequality, and income inequality predicted cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement better than did individualism/ collectivism. These results indicate that macrosocial differences in the distribution of economic goods are linked to microsocial processes of perceiving the self.
Keywords
self-perception, self-enhancement, income inequality, culture, self-esteem, sociocultural factors, socioeconomic status
Discipline
Personality and Social Contexts | Social Psychology
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
Psychological Science
Volume
23
Issue
10
First Page
1254
Last Page
1258
ISSN
0956-7976
Identifier
10.1177/0956797611417003
Publisher
SAGE
Citation
Loughnan, Steve, Kuppens, Peter, Allik, Juri, Balazs, Katalin, de Lemus, Soledad, Dumont, Kitty, Gargurevich, Rafael, Hidegkuti, Istvan, Leidner, Bernhard, & TONG, Jennifer Yuk-Yue.(2011). Economic inequality is linked to biased self-perception. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1254-1258.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1081
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417003