Journal article
Cultural Differences in Unrealistic Optimism and Pessimism: The Role of Egocentrism and Direct Versus Indirect Comparison Measures
Personality & social psychology bulletin, Vol.34(9), pp.1236-1248
09/2008
DOI: 10.1177/0146167208319764
PMID: 18587057
Abstract
Recent research has raised questions regarding the consistency of unrealistic optimism and related self-enhancing tendencies, both within cultures and across cultures. The current study tested whether the method used to assess unrealistic optimism influenced cross-cultural patterns in the United States and Japan. The results showed that the direct method (a single comparison judgment between self and peers) produced similar patterns across cultures because of cognitive biases (e.g., egocentrism); specifically, participants were unrealistically optimistic about experiencing infrequent/negative events but pessimistic about experiencing frequent/ negative events. However, the indirect method (separate self- and peer judgments) produced different patterns across cultures because culturally specific motivational biases emerged using this method; specifically, the U.S. sample was more unrealistically optimistic than the Japanese sample. The authors discuss how these results might influence the interpretation of previous findings on culture and self-enhancement.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Cultural Differences in Unrealistic Optimism and Pessimism: The Role of Egocentrism and Direct Versus Indirect Comparison Measures
- Creators
- Jason P Rose - University of IowaYumi Endo - Kansai UniversityPaul D Windschitl - University of IowaJerry Suls - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Personality & social psychology bulletin, Vol.34(9), pp.1236-1248
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- DOI
- 10.1177/0146167208319764
- PMID
- 18587057
- ISSN
- 0146-1672
- eISSN
- 1552-7433
- Comment
- Test development: Comparative Likelihood Estimates Measure
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/2008
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984214745602771
Metrics
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