Enhancement Bias in Descriptions of Self and Others

1998/05/01 by Joachim I. Krueger · 5 citations
Social Sciences · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion #Self-enhancement #Psychology #Normative #Social psychology #Trait #Social comparison theory #Cognitive bias #Social cognition #Cognitive psychology #Cognition #Epistemology

paper · doi:10.1177/0146167298245006

openalex publication_date 1998/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Self-enhancement bias is the tendency to describe oneself more positively than a normative criterion would predict. This article reviews the common-rater and common-target paradigms for the assessment of enhancement bias and proposes a social-normative paradigm as an alternative. In this paradigm, enhancement bias is conceptualized as an egocentric pattern of discrepancies between self-ratings and relevant social norms. Correlations between a person's ratings of trait descriptiveness and ratings of trait desirability indicate the degree of enhancement (or diminishment) when the group averages of these ratings are controlled. Two studies demonstrate that most people self-enhance, expect others to self-enhance, and abstain from self-enhancement when instructed to estimate the social norms. Results suggest that enhancement is a controllable bias rather than a cognitive illusion.

Citations

• The illusion of control.
• Accuracy and bias in self-perception: Individual differences in self-enhancement and the role of narcissism.
• Do positive illusions foster mental health? An examination of the Taylor and Brown formulation.
• A new look at motivated inference: Are self-serving theories of success a product of motivational forces?
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• Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health.
• Self-esteem and perceptions of conveyed impressions: Is negative affectivity associated with greater realism?
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• The psychology of interpersonal relations.

Cited by

• Moderators of the adaptiveness of self-enhancement: Operationalization, motivational domain, adjustment facet, and evaluator
• Objectivity in the Eye of the Beholder: Divergent Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others.
• Portrait of the self-enhancer: Well adjusted and well liked or maladjusted and friendless?
• Accountability as a deterrent to self-enhancement: The search for mechanisms.
• Self-enhancement [wikipedia]