Self-Enhancement Bias and Error: Measurement, Perception, and Motivation

Heck, Patrick Ryan

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Year:: 2017
Contributor:: Heck, Patrick Ryan (creator); Krueger, Joachim (Advisor); Malle, Bertram (Reader); Cushman, Fiery (Reader); Brown University. Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Decision making; Social Judgment; Social perception; Self-Knowledge; Social psychology
Extent:: X, 156 p.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0QF8R97

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Abstract:: Abstract of Self-Enhancement Bias and Error: Measurement, Perception, and Motivation, by Patrick R. Heck, Ph.D., Brown University, May 2017. Self-enhancement is characterized by the robust finding that individuals tend to view themselves more positively than they view others, or more positively than objective circumstances warrant. However, biased individuals are not always in error. This dissertation proposes a novel approach to discriminate between those who accurately claim to be better than average and those who claim to be better than average when in fact they are not. Studies 1 and 2, a computer simulation, and a meta-analysis of 12 independent samples demonstrated that accuracy abounds in self-enhancing (and -effacing) claims. Here, classic measures of self-enhancement are shown to overdiagnose error in the population. Social perceivers are sensitive to this distinction as well. In Studies 3 and 4, observers condemned self-enhancement bias in the moral domain, and uniquely disparaged self-enhancement error in the competence domain. Finally, the distinction between bias and error appeared to motivate agents to attend to their own high performance and accuracy in self-judgment. Studies 5, 6, and 7 provided initial and replicable evidence that individuals were a.) selectively certain in the accuracy of their claims depending on whether they claimed to be better or worse than average, and b.) motivated to overestimate the number of others committing a similar judgment after learning that they committed a self-enhancement error. The three sections presented in this dissertation indicate that accuracy in self-judgment, and the distinction between bias and error, are critical to continued research in self-enhancement.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2017

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Rights: In Copyright
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Citation

Heck, Patrick Ryan, "Self-Enhancement Bias and Error: Measurement, Perception, and Motivation" (2017). Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0QF8R97

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Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences department.
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