The cultural construction of self-enhancement: an examination of group-serving biases.
Self-serving biases, found routinely in Western samples, have not been observed in Asian samples. Yet given the orientation toward individualism and collectivism in these 2 cultures, respectively, it is imperative to examine whether parallel differences emerge when the target of evaluation is the group. It may be that Asians show a group-serving bias parallel to the Western self-serving bias. In 2 studies, group-serving biases were compared across European Canadian, Asian Canadian, and Japanese students. Study 1 revealed that Japanese students evaluated a family member less positively than did both groups of Canadian students. Study 2 replicated this pattern with students' evaluations of their universities. The data suggest that cultural differences in enhancement biases are robust, generalizing to individuals' evaluations of their groups.
Heine
S J
SJ
Department of Psychology, Kyoto University, Japan.
Lehman
D R
DR
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception; D012945:Social Values; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology