Abstract
Do Chinese self-enhance? This problem has been widely discussed, but no definitive answers. One part study results show that Chinese people are not self-enhancement, and the other part study results show that Chinese people are self-enhancement, two views at loggerheads over; In addition, many of the latter studies are questioned by researchers because of the methods they use, that means what measured by studies use the methods of Better than Average Effect and Self-Serving Attribution Bias is not self-enhancement, but a cognitive bias - "everyone is better than average" (EBTA) mechanism. Results of these studies can serve as evidences that Chinese people are self-improvement only if the effect of EBTA mechanism is excluded. In order to explore Chinese people's self-enhancement motive and its manifestations, this study used the methods of Better than Average Effect, Self-Serving Attribution Bias and Implicit Association Test to measure the self-enhancement of Chinese university students, with the effect of EBTA mechanism taken into consideration.
Study 1 used the method of Better than Average Effect. Chinese university students were asked to evaluate themselves or a strange university student in homogeneous groups. Subjects’ self-evaluations were indicators of self-enhancement. Subjects’ evaluations of the strange student were indicators of EBTA mechanism. We got the features of Chinese university students’ explicit self-enhancement after the effect of EBTA mechanism was excluded. The results showed that: if we didn’t consider EBTA mechanism, Chinese university students had Better than Average Effect, they saw themselves as better than 65.4% of people in the homogeneous group; The effect of EBTA mechanism was significant; Chinese university students still had Better than Average Effect after the effect of EBTA mechanism was excluded, they thought themselves were better than 56% of people in the homogeneous group.
Study 2 used the method of Self-Serving Attribution Bias. Chinese university students were asked to attribute their/a strange university student’s success and failure on 8 factors. Subjects’ attributions of their success and failure were indicators of self-enhancement. Subjects’ attributions of the strange student’s success and failure were indicators of EBTA mechanism. We got the features of Chinese university students’ explicit self-enhancement after the effect of EBTA mechanism was excluded. The results showed that: if we didn’t consider EBTA mechanism, Chinese university students had Self-Serving Attribution Bias; The effect of EBTA mechanism was significant; Chinese university students still had Self-Serving Attribution Bias after the effect of EBTA mechanism was excluded.
Study 3 combined Implicit Association Test and the first two methods. Subjects completed Implicit Association Test, Better than Average Effect test and Self-Serving Attribution Bias test. The results showed that: Chinese university students had implicit self-enhancement; There was positive correlation between implicit self-enhancement and explicit self-enhancement. There weren’t gender or educational differences in both implicit self-enhancement and explicit self-enhancement.
Key words
Self-Enhancement /
“Every is Better than Average” Mechanism /
Better than Average Effect /
Self-Serving Attribution Bias /
Implicit Association Test ( IAT )
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A Study of Self-Enhancement with the Effect of “Everyone is Better than Average” Mechanism Taken into Consideration[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2014, 37(1): 177-181
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