title: Economic inequality is linked to biased self-perception.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Melbourne. s.loughnan@kent.ac.uk
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Loughnan
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kuppens
authors.forename: Jüri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allik
authors.forename: Katalin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Balazs
authors.forename: Soledad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Lemus
authors.forename: Kitty
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dumont
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gargurevich
authors.forename: Istvan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hidegkuti
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leidner
authors.forename: Lennia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Matos
authors.forename: Joonha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Anu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Realo
authors.forename: Junqi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Victor Eduardo
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Sojo
authors.forename: Yuk-Yue
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vaes
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verduyn
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Haslam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000349:Africa; D001208:Asia; D001315:Australia; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013021:South Australia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult