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Greater self-enhancement in Western than Eastern Ukraine, but failure to replicate the Muhammad Ali effect
Markus Kemmelmeier1, Oksana Malanchuk1
1Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology/300, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA.
Abstract:
Based on the cross-cultural research linking individualism-collectivism and self-enhancement, this research examines regional pattern of self-enhancement in Ukraine. Broadly speaking, the western part of Ukraine is mainly Ukrainian speaking and historically oriented towards Europe, whereas Eastern Ukraine is mainly Russian speaking and historically oriented towards the Russian cultural sphere. We found self-enhancement on a "better than average" task to be higher in a Western Ukrainian sample compared to an Eastern Ukrainian sample, with differences in independent self-construals supporting assumed regional variation in individualism. However, the Muhammad Ali effect, the finding that self-enhancement is greater in the domain of morality than intelligence, was not replicated. The discussion focuses on the specific sources of this regional difference in self-enhancement, and reasons for why the Muhammad Ali effect was not found.
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