Overvaluation of Own Attributes: Mere Ownership or Subjective Frequency?

1993/06/01 by Vera Hoorens, Jozef M. Nuttin · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · Neuroscience · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Child and Animal Learning Development #Face Recognition and Perception #Psychology #Referent #Attractiveness #Cognition #Social psychology #Object (grammar) #Cognitive psychology #Linguistics

paper · doi:10.1521/soco.1993.11.2.177

openalex publication_date 1993/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22

Abstract

The hypothesis was tested that the Name-Letter Effect or affective overvaluation of own name-letters as compared to non-name-letters (Nuttin, 1985, 1987) is due to an enhanced subjective frequency of own name-letters as compared to non-name-letters. Experiment 1 yielded a Name-Letter Effect and an overestimation of own name-letters' frequencies as compared to non-name-letters. Both effects were correlated. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated both effects but not their correlation. In Experiment 3, subjects who were satisfied with their own name showed a stronger Name-Letter Effect (but no stronger name-letter frequency overestimation) than subjects who were relatively dissatisfied with it. Results run counter to the subjective frequency hypothesis and support the mere ownership hypothesis, which states that merely belonging to one's self (mere ownership) is a sufficient condition for the enhancement of the attractiveness of an object and its constitutive elements. The implications of both name-letter overvaluation phenomena for cognitive and affective self-referent processes are discussed.

Citations

• Self–other judgments and perceived vulnerability to victimization.
• Affective consequences of mere ownership: The name letter effect in twelve European languages
• Global self-evaluation as determined by the desirability and controllability of trait adjectives.
• Mastery pleasure versus mere ownership: A quasi‐experimental cross‐cultural and cross‐alphabetical test of the name letter effect
• Self-enhancement and Superiority Biases in Social Comparison
• Response competition, recognition, and affect.
• The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history.
• Narcissism beyond Gestalt and awareness: The name letter effect
• The name letter effect: Attachment to self or primacy of own name writing?
• Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.
• Unrealistic optimism about future life events.

Cited by

• THE BIRTHDATE EFFECT: AN EXTENSION OF THE MERE OWNERSHIP EFFECT
• Self-Evaluation: To Thine Own Self Be Good, To Thine Own Self Be Sure, To Thine Own Self Be True, and To Thine Own Self be Better
• Self-Threat Magnifies the Self-Serving Bias: A Meta-Analytic Integration
• Name-letter effect [wikipedia]