Do Chinese Self-Enhance or Self-Efface? It's a Matter of Domain

1998/04/01 by Michelle Yik, Michael Harris Bond, Delroy L. Paulhus · 144 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Personality Traits and Psychology #Psychology #Openness to experience #Social psychology #Assertiveness #Self-enhancement #Personality #Self #Intellect #Developmental psychology #Theology

paper · doi:10.1177/0146167298244006

published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 24(4), 399-406 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 1998/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23

Abstract

The assumption that Chinese tend to self-efface has mixed support in the scanty empirical literature. The conflicting findings may be attributable to measuring different domains in different studies. Therefore, we assessed self-enhancement across eight domains of person perception in a Hong Kong Chinese sample. Twenty-one groups of college students, after working together for 13 weeks on class projects, were asked to rate fellow group members on all eight domains. The degree of self-enhancement or self-effacement was determined by comparing self-ratings with mean peer ratings. Results showed an overall self-effacement effect, which was significant for five of eight personality dimensions. The exceptions were agentic traits such as Assertiveness, Openness to Experience, and Intellect. The overall rate of self-enhancers (43%) was substantially lower than the rate for a comparable North American sample (56%). Although those who self-enhanced most reported high self-esteem, they were not rated as better adjusted by their peers.

Citations

• Individual and collective processes in the construction of the self: Self-enhancement in the United States and self-criticism in Japan.
• Accuracy and bias in self-perception: Individual differences in self-enhancement and the role of narcissism.
• Depression and evaluative schemata
• Social Networks and Self Enhancement in Chinese Children: A Comparison of Self Reports and Peer Reports of Group Membership*
• CULTURAL RELATIVITY IN ACTION: A COMPARISON OF SELF‐RATINGS MADE BY CHINESE AND U.S. WORKERS
• Do positive illusions foster mental health? An examination of the Taylor and Brown formulation.
• Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.
• Self-Enhancing Illusions among Chinese Schoolchildren
• Positive Illusions and Coping with Adversity
• Evaluations of Self and Others: Self-Enhancement Biases in Social Judgments
• Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health.
• Social competence and depression: The role of illusory self-perceptions.
• Self-esteem and perceptions of conveyed impressions: Is negative affectivity associated with greater realism?
• Overly positive self-evaluations and personality: Negative implications for mental health.

Cited by

• On Pancultural Self-Enhancement
• Self-enhancement [wikipedia]