Punishing hubris: the perils of overestimating one's status in a group.
Individuals engage in status self-enhancement when they form an overly positive perception of their status in a group. We argue that status self-enhancement incurs social costs and, therefore, most individuals perceive their status accurately. In contrast, theories of positive illusions suggest status self-enhancement is beneficial for the individual and that most individuals overestimate their status. We found supportive evidence for our hypotheses in a social relations analysis of laboratory groups, an experiment that manipulated status self-enhancement, and a study of real-world groups. Individuals who engaged in status self-enhancement were liked less by others and paid less for their work. Moreover, individuals tended to perceive their status highly accurately. Mediation analyses showed that status self-enhancers were socially punished because they were seen as disruptive to group processes.
Anderson
Cameron
C
University of California, Walter A. Hass School of Business, Berkeley, CA 94720-1900, USA. anderson@haas.berkeley.edu
Ames
Daniel R
DR
Gosling
Samuel D
SD
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving; D011593:Psychology, Social; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires