Do Collectivists Know Themselves Better Than Individualists? Cross-Cultural Studies of the Holier Than Thou Phenomenon

Balcetis, Emily
Dunning, David
Miller, Richard L.

¹Department of Psychology, Ohio University
²Department of Psychology, Cornell University
³Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska at Kearney

This work was supported financially by National Institute of Mental Health Grant RO1 56072 awarded to David Dunning. Many thanks to Travis Carter, Kathy Deng, Chelsea Hall, Christina Hung, Stephen Zhang, the summer school teachers at the Baleares International School in Palma, Mallorca, and the Kearney Chapter of the Nebraska Boy Scouts for assisting in conducting the experiments reported in this article.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Emily Balcetis, 200 Porter Hall, Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. E-mail: [email protected]

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to David Dunning, Department of Psychology, 278B Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. E-mail: [email protected]

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Richard L. Miller, Department of Psychology, 300 Copeland Hall, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, NE 68849. E-mail: [email protected]

Received March 1, 2006; Revision received May 31, 2008; Accepted June 7, 2008

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(6):p 1252-1267, December 2008. | DOI: 10.1037/a0013195

Collectivists know themselves better than individualists do, in that collectivists provide more accurate self-predictions of future behavior in situations with moral or altruistic overtones. In 3 studies, respondents from individualist cultures overestimated the likelihood that they would act generously in situations involving redistributing a reward (Study 1), donating money (Study 2), or avoiding rude behavior (Study 3), whereas collectivists were, in general, more accurate in their self-predictions. Both groups were roughly accurate in predicting the behavior of their peers. Collectivists were more accurate in their self-predictions than were individualists, even when both groups were sampled from the same cultural group (Study 4). Discussion centers on culturally specific motivations that may bias the accuracy of self-insight and social insight.