Although routinely observed among North Americans, self-enhancing biases have been elusive in studies conducted with Japanese. The authors conducted two studies of relationship-serving biases (RSBs) with Japanese, Asian Canadian, and European Canadian participants. In both studies, members of all three cultural groups viewed their own relationships (with their best friend, their closest family member, and their romantic partner) as more positive than those of their peers, and to roughly the same extent. Of importance, however, (a) RSBs were largely uncorrelated with both self-esteem and self-serving biases and (b) Japanese (but not the other two cultural groups’) RSBs were paralleled by tendencies to view their relationship partners more positively than themselves. The authors suggest that relationship enhancement serves a different function than self-enhancement, aiding the individual’s quest for connection and belongingness with others.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aron, A. , & Aron, E. N. (1994). Self and self-expansion in relationships. In G. J. O. Fletcher & J. Fitness (Eds.), Knowledge structures in close relationships. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Averill, J. R. (1985). The social construction of emotion: With special reference to love. In K. J. Gergen & K. E. Davis (Eds.), The social construction of the person (pp. 89-109). New York: Springer-Verlag.
3.
Baumeister, R. F. , & Jones, E. E. (1978). When self-presentation is constrained by the target’s knowledge: Consistency and compensation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 608-618.
4.
Baumeister, R. F. , & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529.
5.
Blaine, B. , & Crocker, J. (1993). Self-esteem and self-serving biases in reaction to positive and negative events: An integrative review. In R. Baumeister (Ed.), Self-esteem: The puzzle of low self-regard (pp. 55-85). New York: Plenum.
6.
Bond, M. H. , & Cheung, T. (1983). College students’ spontaneous self-concept. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 14, 153-171.
7.
Brown, J. D. (1986). Evaluations of self and others: Self-enhancement biases in social judgments. Social Cognition, 4, 353-375.
8.
Buunk, B. P. , & Van Yperen, N. W. (1991). Referential comparisons, relational comparisons, and exchange orientation: Their relation to marital satisfaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 709-717.
9.
Campbell, J. D. (1986). Similarity and uniqueness: The effects of attribute type, relevance, and individual differences in self-esteem and depression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 281-294.
10.
Chandler, T. A. , Shama, D. D., Wolf, F. M., & Planchard, S. K. (1981). Multiattributional causality: A five cross-national samples study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 12, 207-221.
11.
Cialdini, R. B. , & Richardson, K. D. (1980). Two indirect tactics of image management: Basking and blasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 406-415.
12.
Collins, N. L. (1996). Working models of attachment: Implications for explanation, emotion, and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 810-832.
13.
Collins, N. L. , & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644-663.
14.
Colvin, C. R. , & Block, J. (1994). Do positive illusions foster mental health? An examination of the Taylor and Brown formulation. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 3-20.
15.
Colvin, C. R. , Block, J., & Funder, D. C. (1995). Overly positive evaluations and personality: Negative implications for mental health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 1152-1162.
16.
Cross, P. (1977). Not can but will college teaching be improved?New Directions for Higher Education, 17, 1-15.
17.
Dion, K. K. , & Dion, K. L. (1993). Individualistic and collectivistic perspectives on gender and the cultural context of love and intimacy. Journal of Social Issues, 49, 53-69.
18.
Endo, Y. (1996). Relationship-enhancement and self-serving inference. Paper presented at the 37th Conference of the Japanese Social Psychology Association.
19.
Endo, Y. (1997). Relationship-enhancement and relative self-effacement. Japanese Journal of Psychology, 68(5), 387-395.
20.
Endo, Y. (1998). Relationship serving biases and attachment-style in the U.S. and Japan. Unpublished data, Nara University, Nara, Japan.
21.
Feeney, J. A. , & Noller, P. (1990). Attachment style as a predictor of adult romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 281-291.
22.
Fiske, A. P. , Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., & Nisbett, R. E. (1997). The cultural matrix of social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 915-981). New York: McGraw-Hill.
23.
Greenwald, A. G. (1980). The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history. American Psychologist, 35, 603-618.
24.
Griffin, D. W. , & Bartholomew, K. (1994). Models of the self and other: Fundamental dimensions underlying measures of adult attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 430-445.
25.
Headey, B. , & Wearing, A. (1987). The sense of relative superiority-central to well-being. Social Indicators Research, 20, 497-516.
26.
Heine, S. J. (1993). Cultural variation in unrealistic optimism. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of British Columbia, Canada.
27.
Heine, S. J. , Kitayama, S., & Lehman, D. R. (in press). Cultural differences in self-evaluation: Japanese readily accept negative self-relevant information. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
28.
Heine, S. J. , & Lehman, D. R. (1995). Cultural variation in unrealistic optimism: Does the West feel more invulnerable than the East?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 595-607.
29.
Heine, S. J. , & Lehman, D. R. (1997a). The cultural construction of self-enhancement: An examination of group-serving biases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1268-1283.
30.
Heine, S. J. , & Lehman, D. R. (1997b). Culture, dissonance, and self-affirmation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 389-400.
31.
Heine, S. J. , & Lehman, D. R. (1999). Culture, self-discrepancies, and self-satisfaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 915-925.
32.
Heine, S. J. , Lehman, D. R., Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1999). Is there a universal need for positive self-regard?Psychological Review, 106, 766-794.
33.
Heine, S. J. , Takata, T., & Lehman, D. R. (2000). Beyond self-presentation: Evidence for self-criticism among Japanese. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 71-78.
34.
John, O. P. , & Robins, R. W. (1994). Accuracy and bias in self-perception: Individual differences in self-enhancement and the role of narcissism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 206-219.
35.
Kitayama, S. , Karasawa, M., Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., & Markus, H. R. (1998). Conversation sampling from Japan, the U.S., and Canada. Unpublished data, Kyoto University, Japan.
36.
Kitayama, S. , Markus, H. R., Matsumoto, H., & Norasakkunkit, V. (1997). Individual and collective processes of self-esteem management: Self-enhancement in the United States and self-depreciation in Japan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1245-1267.
37.
Kitayama, S. , Palm, R. I., Masuda, T., Karasawa, M., & Carroll, J. (1996). Optimism in the U.S. and pessimism in Japan: Perceptions of earthquake risk. Unpublished manuscript, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
38.
Kitayama, S. , Takagi, H., & Matsumoto, H. (1995). Causal attribution of success and failure: Cultural psychology of the Japanese self. Japanese Psychological Review, 38, 247-280.
39.
Kunda, Z. (1987). Motivated inference: Self-serving generation and evaluation of causal theories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 636-647.
40.
Kwan, V. S. Y. , Bond, M. H., & Singelis, T. M. (1997). Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: Adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1038-1051.
41.
Langer, E. (1975). The illusion of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 311-328.
42.
Lau, R. R. , & Russell, D. (1980). Attributions in the sports pages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 29-38.
43.
Mahler, I. (1976). What is the self-concept in Japan?Psychologia, 19, 127-132.
44.
Marks, G. (1984). Thinking one’s abilities are unique and one’s opinions are common. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10, 203-308.
45.
Markus, H. R. , & Kitayama, S. (1991a). Cultural variation in the self-concept. In G. R. Goethals & J. Strauss (Eds.), Multidisciplinary perspectives on the self (pp. 18-48). New York: Springer-Verlag.
46.
Markus, H. R. , & Kitayama, S. (1991b). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
47.
Meijer, Z. Y. , & Semin, G. R. (1998). When the self-serving bias does not serve the self: Attributions of success and failure in cultural perspective. Unpublished manuscript, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
48.
Murray, S. L. , Holmes, J. G., & Griffin, D. W. (1996a). The benefits of positive illusions: Idealization and the construction of satisfaction in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 79-98.
49.
Murray, S. L. , Holmes, J. G., & Griffin, D. W. (1996b). The self-fulfilling nature of positive illusions in romantic relationships: Love is not blind, but prescient. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1155-1180.
50.
Paulhus, D. L. (1998). Interpersonal vs. intrapsychic adaptiveness of trait self-enhancement: A mixed blessing?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1197-1208.
51.
Radloff, L. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.
52.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
53.
Rosenblatt, R. (1993, December 21). The 11th commandment. Family Circle, pp. 30-32, 45.
54.
Singelis, T. M. , Bond, M. H., Lai, S. Y., & Sharkey, W. F. (1999). Unpack-aging culture’s influence on self-esteem and embarrassability: The role of self-construals. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 30, 320-346.
55.
Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261-302). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
56.
Taylor, S. E. , & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193-210.
57.
Taylor, S. E. , & Brown, J. D. (1994). Positive illusions and well-being revisited: Separating fact from fiction. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 21-27.
58.
Tesser, A. (1988). Toward a self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 181-227). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
59.
Van Lange, P. A. M. , & Rusbult, C. E. (1995). My relationship is better than—and not as bad as—yours is: The perception of superiority in close relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 32-44.
60.
Weinstein, N. D. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806-820.
61.
Weisz, J. R. , Rothbaum, F. M., & Blackburn, T. C. (1984). Standing out and standing in: The psychology of control in America and Japan. American Psychologist, 39, 955-969.
62.
Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 90, 245-271.
63.
Wood, J. V. (1989). Theory and research concerning social comparisons of personal attributes. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 231-248.
64.
Yeh, C. (1995). The clinical grounding of self and morality in Japan and the U.S. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, CA.
65.
Yik, M. S. M. , Bond, M. H., & Paulhus, D. L. (1998). Do Chinese self-enhance or self-efface? It’s a matter of domain. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 399-406.
66.
Zuckerman, M. (1979). Attribution of success and failure revisited, or: The motivational bias is alive and well in attribution theory. Journal of Personality, 47, 245-287.
