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.
Autor(es):LOUGHNAN, Steve
KUPPENS, Peter
ALLIK, Juri
BALAZS, Katalin
DE LEMUS, Soledad
DUMONT, Kitty
GARGUREVICH, Rafael
HIDEGKUTI, Istvan
LEIDNER, Bernhard
MATOS, Lennia
PARK, Joonha
REALO, Anu
SHI, Junqui
SOJO, Victor
TONG, Yuk-Yue
VAES, Jeroen
VERDUYN, Philippe
YEUNG, Victoria
HASLAM, Nick
Año: 2011
Título de la revista: Psychological Science
Ciudad: -
Volumen: 22
Número: 10
Página inicial - Página final: 1254-1258
ISSN: DOI: 10.1177/095679761141
Url: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/22/10/1254.abstract