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Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Jellinger, Paul S. |
| Copyright Year | 2008 |
| Abstract | In an important series of studies, Lord, Ross, and Lepper (1979) documented a curious phenomenon: When parties with opposing attitudes look at the same set of conflicting data, each emerges with its convictions strengthened. This biased assimilation effect occurs because people’s attitudes color their judgments of evidence quality. Evidence that fits one’s prior beliefs seems compelling and convincing, whereas opposing evidence seems flawed and specious. Reading Heine’s commentary reminded me of this study. As one who believes selfenhancement processes are a basic human motivation, I looked at this evidence and concluded that it provides strong support for the claim that people the world over strive to feel good about themselves. In contrast, as one who believes that self-enhancement processes are not universal, Heine looked at the same body of evidence and concluded that the selfenhancement motive is culturally bound and emerges in collectivistic cultures only if certain measurement artifacts artificially inflate its strength. Rather than discussing point-for-point the concerns Heine raised, I thought I would focus on something he wrote about his own work. Near the end of his commentary, he noted that he and his associates have not argued that East Asians “like themselves any less than North Americans,” only that they are more critical about their self-competence. I was very surprised to read this admission. I had assumed that he and his colleagues thought otherwise when they published a paper asking, “Is the need for positive self-regard universal?” (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1998). I didn’t realize until now that their answer is “Yes, it is universal, but East Asians don’t necessarily tout their competence.” I think this position is very reasonable and I suspect few readers will find any reason to quarrel with it. Accordingly, I will simply summarize how the present series of articles supports this conclusion. |
| Starting Page | 10 |
| Ending Page | 10 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1016/s1558-0164(08)70053-1 |
| Volume Number | 3 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/articles/Brown%20(2003).pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1016/s1558-0164%2808%2970053-1 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
