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Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
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Published on: January 24, 2020

Deconstructing the better-than-average effect.

Corey L Guenther1, Mark D Alicke

  • 1Department of Psychology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 68178, USA. coreyguenther@creighton.edu

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|October 20, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

People judge themselves better than average due to social comparison, where self-ratings anchor perceptions of others. Motivational processes further shape this better-than-average effect (BTAE).

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Bias

Background:

  • The better-than-average effect (BTAE) is a well-documented phenomenon where individuals evaluate themselves more favorably than an average peer.
  • Existing literature has explored various explanations for BTAE but has not fully addressed its social-comparative nature or the role of motivational processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the extent to which BTAE is a social-comparative phenomenon.
  • To examine the role of strategic motivational processes in self versus average-peer judgments.

Main Methods:

  • Study 1 used experimental methods to assess relational judgments in self versus average-peer comparisons.
  • Studies 2-4 investigated the moderating role of self-enhancement motives on BTAE outcomes across positively and negatively evaluated dimensions.

Main Results:

  • Self-versus average-peer judgments are relational, anchored by self-ratings, leading to assimilation of average-peer judgments toward self-ratings (Study 1).
  • Self-enhancement motives moderate this assimilation: they restrict it for positively evaluated traits and amplify it for negatively evaluated traits (Studies 2-4).

Conclusions:

  • BTAE is significantly influenced by social comparison processes, specifically assimilation anchored by self-perceptions.
  • Motivational drives, particularly self-enhancement, strategically modulate the degree of assimilation, impacting how individuals perceive themselves relative to others.