Pancultural self-enhancement.
Abstract
The culture movement challenged the universality of the self-enhancement motive by proposing that the motive is pervasive in individualistic cultures (the West) but absent in collectivistic cultures (the East). The present research posited that Westerners and Easterners use different tactics to achieve the same goal: positive self-regard. Study 1 tested participants from differing cultural backgrounds (the United States vs. Japan), and Study 2 tested participants of differing self-construals (independent vs. interdependent). Americans and independents self-enhanced on individualistic attributes, whereas Japanese and interdependents self-enhanced on collectivistic attributes. Independents regarded individualistic attributes, whereas interdependents regarded collectivistic attributes, as personally important. Attribute importance mediated self-enhancement. Regardless of cultural background or self-construal, people self-enhance on personally important dimensions. Self-enhancement is a universal human motive.
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Most theories in the norm-fulfillment tradition emphasize the role of cultural norms.
“Most theories in the norm-fulfillment tradition emphasize the role of cultural norms (Pyszczynski et al., 2004;Rosenberg, 1965;Sedikides et al., 2003).”
From Cultural norm fulfillment, interpersonal belonging, or getting ahead? A large-scale cross-cultural test of three perspectives on the function of self-esteem. (2015) · cites this paper as Sedikides et al., 2003
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- Authors
- Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., & Toguchi, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Kansai University (JP)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2003-01
- Volume
- 84
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 60-79
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2112227320
- Cited by
- 885
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 84 · 2019: 34 · 2018: 42 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 43 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 50 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 39
- FWCI
- 36.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- self-enhancement, individualism-collectivism, self-construal, attribute importance, cross-cultural comparison, Eastern and Western cultures
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Culture, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Psychological, Self Concept
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