Suppressor effects in self-enhancement research: A critical comment on condition-based regression analysis

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Self-enhancement, defined as a positive association between happiness and the discrepancy between self-ratings (S) and objective measures (O), is often studied.
• A key challenge is distinguishing self-enhancement from a simple positive self-view, where self-perceptions alone might explain happiness levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate Condition-based Regression Analysis (CRA) as a method to disentangle self-enhancement from positive self-view accounts.
• To demonstrate that CRA's core assumption for ruling out positive self-view is flawed.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical critique of Condition-based Regression Analysis (CRA).
• Analysis of regression models where self-rating (S) and objective measures (O) predict happiness (H).
• Computer simulations to illustrate the critique and corroborate findings.

Main Results:

• CRA's assumption that opposite regression weights (βS > 0; βO < 0) rule out positive self-view is incorrect.
• The presence of a positive self-view can inherently produce the regression pattern CRA identifies as evidence against it, due to suppressor effects.
• Objective measures (O) may appear to negatively predict happiness indirectly by suppressing irrelevant self-rating (S) variance.

Conclusions:

• Condition-based Regression Analysis (CRA) does not reliably differentiate self-enhancement from positive self-view.
• The statistical patterns identified by CRA can arise from suppressor effects within a positive self-view framework.
• This critique necessitates a re-evaluation of studies relying on CRA to support self-enhancement theories.