IS SELF-ENHANCEMENT HEALTHY - CONCEPTUAL, PSYCHOMETRIC, AND EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS

Whereas S. E. Taylor and J. D. Brown (1988) proposed that positive ill usions foster mental health, C. R. Colvin, J. Block, and D. C. Funder (1995) presented empirical evidence that suggested the opposite: The e xtent to which self-ratings are more favorable than ratings by others (self-enhancement) is correlated with unfavorable personality traits ( self-enhancement correlation). Our conceptual analysis shows that thes e propositions are not incompatible. Our psychometric analysis reveals that self-enhancement correlations are a function of the self-other a greement and the consensus of others. Our empirical analysis of self-e nhancement correlations, self-other agreement, and consensus of others across 830 traits indicates that (a) self-enhancement is consistent a cross highly evaluative traits, but not across traits low in evaluativ eness, and (b) self-enhancement correlations are minimal for non-evalu ative traits and increase with increasing trait evaluativeness. We con clude that people consistently differ in their tendency to enhance the ir trait descriptions and that this tendency is linked to the unfavora bility of their traits.