Self-enhancement
The motive to see oneself positively, shown in rating oneself above average, taking credit for success, explaining away failure and remembering one's past selectively.
What drives it
It maintains self-esteem and buoyancy. In moderation it supports persistence; in excess it blocks learning and irritates others.
How it shows
Work
Rating their own contribution higher than colleagues do, remembering being 'the one who saw it coming', describing failures as 'the market' and successes as vision, fishing for praise. In 360 reviews, self-ratings far above others' ratings.
Relationships
Each partner believing they do more than half the housework; retelling arguments with themselves as the reasonable one.
Self
Compare your estimate of your contribution with an objective record. Notice which memories you tell often.
What tells it apart
Grandiose narcissism: Ordinary self-enhancement can be corrected by evidence without rage; narcissistic grandiosity reacts to correction with anger or devaluation of the source.
Self-serving bias: Self-serving bias is the specific attribution pattern of credit for success and blame for failure; self-enhancement is the broader motive that also includes selective memory and comparison.
Self-verification: Self-enhancers welcome flattery from anyone; self-verifiers distrust it unless it matches their self-view.
A test
Compare the person's estimate of their contribution or ability with an objective measure or others' ratings.
Questions to carry
- How does the person's estimate of their own share compare with what the others involved would say?
- Remembering a shared success, how big is my part in my story compared with the part others would give me?
How strong the research is
moderate. The better-than-average effect replicates widely; whether self-enhancement is universal across cultures (Heine) and whether it helps or harms adjustment are both still disputed.
Where it comes from
Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown, 1988 (positive illusions); Constantine Sedikides and colleagues on the self-enhancement motive.
Sources
- François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales) (1665)