Implicit Self-Esteem in Japan: Name Letters and Birthday Numbers

1997/07/01 by Shinobu Kitayama, Mayumi Karasawa · 292 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · Mathematics · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Personality Traits and Psychology #Feeling #Psychology #Preference #Social psychology #Self-esteem #Developmental psychology #Mathematics

paper · doi:10.1177/0146167297237006

published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23(7), 736-742 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 1997/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23

Abstract

Japanese studies have repeatedly failed to obtain any explicit tendency to enhance self-esteem. In two studies, the authors attempted an implicit assessment of positive feelings attached to Japanese selves and found evidence for such feelings. Study 1 examined preference for Japanese alphabetical letters and found that letters included in one's own name were significantly better liked than the remaining ones. Further, an especially strong preference was expressed by male respondents for the first letters of their family names, and by female respondents for the first letters of their first names. Study 2 assessed preference for numerics and showed that the numbers corresponding to both the month and the day of one's birthday were significantly better liked than the remaining numbers. Implications are discussed for theories of Japanese selves.

Citations

• Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes.
• Affective consequences of mere ownership: The name letter effect in twelve European languages
• The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history.
• Narcissism beyond Gestalt and awareness: The name letter effect
• The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts.
• Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.
• Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.
• Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health.

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• Implicit partner affect, relationship satisfaction, and the prediction of romantic breakup
• What’s in a Name: A Bayesian Hierarchical Analysis of the Name-Letter Effect
• NAME-LETTER BRANDING UNDER SCRUTINY: REAL PRODUCTS, NEW ALGORITHMS, AND THE PROBABILITY OF BUYING 1,2
• Are implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem related? A meta-analysis for the Name-Letter Test
• Romantic jealousy and implicit and explicit self-esteem
• Is there a universal need for positive self-regard?
• Individual and collective processes in the construction of the self: Self-enhancement in the United States and self-criticism in Japan.
• Pancultural self-enhancement reloaded: A meta-analytic reply to Heine (2005).
• On Pancultural Self-Enhancement
• What a Coincidence! The Effects of Incidental Similarity on Compliance
• Name-letter effect [wikipedia]