[Self-enhancement tendency in self and other evaluations: an examination of 'better-than-average effect']

The purpose of this study was to examine self-enhancement tendency of Japanese people when evaluating self and others, and study the relation between the tendency and self-esteem. In Study 1, subjects were asked to evaluate themselves and an average undergraduate of their age in terms of several attributes. Results showed that self-evaluations were more favorable than evaluations of the average undergraduate on such personality attributes as kindness and diligence, which they rated more important, and less favorable on such attributes as appearance, sociability, and financial resource. In addition, subjects with low self-esteem were likely to appraise themselves more negatively than those with high self-esteem, but the two groups showed the same level of self-enhancement when rating themselves on personality attributes. In Study 2, subjects provided percentile rankings of themselves on ten attributes in relation to undergraduates of their age. Results indicated that more than half of the subjects thought that they were above average (better-than-average effect) on such personality attributes as kindness.