Feeling "holier than thou": Are self-serving assessments produced by errors in self- or social prediction?

2000/01/01 by Nicholas Epley, David Dunning · 756 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion #Thou #Feeling #Psychology #Social psychology #Self-disclosure #Theology

paper · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.861

published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79(6), 861-875 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2000/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

People typically believe they are more likely to engage in selfless, kind, and generous behaviors than their peers, a result that is both logically and statistically suspect. However, this oft-documented tendency presents an important ambiguity. Do people feel "holier than thou" because they harbor overly cynical views of their peers (but accurate impressions of themselves) or overly charitable views of themselves (and accurate impressions of their peers)? Four studies suggested it was the latter. Participants consistently overestimated the likelihood that they would act in generous or selfless ways, whereas their predictions of others were considerably more accurate. Two final studies suggest this divergence in accuracy arises, in part, because people are unwilling to consult population base rates when predicting their own behavior but use this diagnostic information more readily when predicting others'.

Citations

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Cited by

• Hypocrisy [wikipedia]