Self-Construal Priming Modulates Self-Evaluation under Social Threat

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Social psychology

Background:

• Westerners exhibit a self-enhancement bias, evaluating themselves more positively under social-evaluative threat.
• Cultural differences in self-evaluation strategies are increasingly recognized.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if East Asians exhibit a similar self-enhancement bias under social-evaluative threat.
• To examine the role of self-construal in modulating self-evaluation under social threat in East Asians.

Main Methods:

• Experiment 1: Chinese participants completed self-evaluation tasks under varying social-evaluative feedback conditions.
• Experiment 2: Social-evaluative threat manipulations were combined with self-construal priming (independent, interdependent, neutral).

Main Results:

• Chinese participants showed a greater-than-average effect only with non-threatening feedback, unlike Westerners.
• Independent self-construal priming increased the above-average effect under social threat.
• Interdependent or neutral priming eliminated this effect under social threat.

Conclusions:

• The impact of social-evaluative threat on self-evaluation is not universal across cultures.
• Self-construal significantly modulates how individuals evaluate themselves in response to social threats.