info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Economic Inequality Is Linked to Biased Self-Perception
Fecha
2011-08-13Registro en:
Psychol Sci. 2011 Oct;22(10):1254-8
0956-7976
10.1177/0956797611417003
1467-9280
Psychological science
Autor
Loughnan, Steve
Kuppens, Peter
Allik, Jüri
Balazs, Katalin
De Lemus, Soledad
Dumont, Kitty
Gargurevich, Rafael
Hidegkuti, Istvan
Leidner, Bernhard
Matos, Lennia
Park, Joonha
Realo, Anu
Shi, Junqi
Sojo, Victor Eduardo
Yuk-yue Tong
Vaes, Jeroen
Verduyn, Philippe
Yeung, Victoria
Haslam, Nick
Institución
Resumen
People’s self-perception biases often lead them to see themselves as better than the average person (a phenomenon known as self-enhancement). This bias varies across cultures, and variations are typically explained using cultural variables, such as individualism versus collectivism. We propose that socioeconomic differences among societies—specifically, relative levels of economic inequality—play an important but unrecognized role in how people evaluate themselves. Evidence for selfenhancement was found in 15 diverse nations, but the magnitude of the bias varied. Greater self-enhancement was found in societies with more income inequality, and income inequality predicted cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement better than did individualism/collectivism. These results indicate that macrosocial differences in the distribution of economic goods are linked to microsocial processes of perceiving the self.