Why do Westerners self‐enhance more than East Asians?

TLDR

Much research finds that Westerners self‑enhance more than East Asians, with the exception of studies using the implicit associations test for self‑esteem (IATSE). The study compared Japanese and Canadians on a new self‑enhancement measure under low and high attentional load to examine whether cultural differences vary across controlled and automatic processes. Participants completed the new self‑enhancement measure under both attentional loads, as well as relational mobility and IATSE assessments. Japanese and Asian‑Canadians were more self‑critical than Euro‑Canadians under both attentional loads, a difference partially mediated by relational mobility, while the IATSE showed no cultural differences and did not correlate with other measures, suggesting it is not a valid measure of true self‑feelings. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Much research finds that Westerners self‐enhance more than East Asians, with the exception of studies using the implicit associations test for self‐esteem (IATSE). We contrasted Japanese and Canadians on a new measure of self‐enhancement under low‐ and high‐attentional load to assess whether cultural differences vary across controlled and automatic processes. Participants also completed measures of relational mobility and the IATSE. Results indicated that Japanese and Asian‐Canadians were more self‐critical than Euro‐Canadians, both under high‐ and low‐attentional load. This cultural difference was partially mediated by relational mobility. The IATSE showed no cultural differences, but this measure did not positively correlate with any of the other measures in the study, suggesting that it is not a valid measure of ‘true’ self‐feelings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.