This proposal focuses on how people's beliefs and concerns about their own self-concepts influence their evaluations of other people. In particular, the research in the proposal assesses whether people tailor their judgments of others in order to bolster or maintain their impressions, usually positive ones, of themselves. The research will examine three separate issues. First, it will explore conditions that may limit or prevent the usual and ubiquitous tendency to provide egocentric, self-serving judgments of others. In particular, it will examine whether individuals with low self-esteem manage their judgments of others in the same way that high self-esteem individuals do. Second, the research will assess whether the tendency to make self-serving social judgments Can be """"""""debiased,"""""""" or rather reduced or eliminated, by situational Circumstances. Third, the research will examine whether self-serving judgments actually influence mood and feelings of self- worth. The research is aimed at contributing to an understanding of social judgment and self-esteem processes. Self-esteem has been implicated in a wide range of health and coping phenomena. As such, understanding how people bolster, enhance, or undermine their self- esteem through social judgment will increase understanding of these health consequences. Because the psychological processes to be examined have also been linked to biases in self and social judgment, the research will also contribute to an understanding of how people's views of themselves can sometimes become biased and unrealistic. The research will also enhance understanding of disagreement and conflict in social judgment. Decades of research has shown that people often disagree over their judgments of others, with those disagreements linked to how individuals judge themselves. At its essence, the research in the proposal will examine those disagreements, to see how views about the self influence views about other people.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH056072-02
Application #
2675524
Study Section
Social and Group Processes Review Committee (SGP)
Project Start
1997-04-01
Project End
2000-03-31
Budget Start
1998-04-01
Budget End
1999-03-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Cornell University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Ithaca
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
14850
Balcetis, Emily; Dunning, David; Miller, Richard L (2008) Do collectivists know themselves better than individualists? Cross-cultural studies of the holier than thou phenomenon. J Pers Soc Psychol 95:1252-67
Ehrlinger, Joyce; Johnson, Kerri; Banner, Matthew et al. (2008) Why the Unskilled Are Unaware: Further Explorations of (Absent) Self-Insight Among the Incompetent. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 105:98-121
Beauregard, K S; Dunning, D (1998) Turning up the contrast: self-enhancement motives prompt egocentric contrast effects in social judgments. J Pers Soc Psychol 74:606-21