Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
12-2010
Abstract
There is a well-established tendency for people to see themselves as better than average (self-enhancement), although the universality of this phenomenon is contested. Much less well-known is the tendency for people to see themselves as more human than average (self-humanizing). We examined these biases in six diverse nations: Australia, Germany, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and the USA. Both biases were found in all nations. The self-humanizing effect was obtained independent of self-enhancement, and was stronger than self-enhancement in two nations (Germany and Japan). Self-humanizing was not specific to Western or English-speaking cultures and its magnitude was less cross-culturally variable than self-enhancement. Implications of these findings for research on the self and its biases are discussed.
Discipline
Applied Behavior Analysis | Social Psychology
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
British Journal of Social Psychology
Volume
49
Issue
3
First Page
627
Last Page
636
ISSN
0144-6665
Identifier
10.1348/014466610X487779
Publisher
Wiley: 12 months
Citation
LOUGHNAN, Steve; LEIDNER, Bernhard; DORON, Guy; HASLAM, Nick; KASHIMA, Yoshihisa; Jennifer TONG; and YEUNG, Victoria.
Universal biases in self-perception: Better and more human than average. (2010). British Journal of Social Psychology. 49, (3), 627-636.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research_all/6
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
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./10.1348/014466610X487779