ENHANCEMENT BIAS IN DESCRIPTIONS OF SELF AND OTHERS

Self-enhancement bias is the tendency to describe oneself more Positiv ely than a normative criterion would predict. This article reviews the common-rater and common-target paradigms for the assessment of enhanc ement bias and proposes a social-normative paradigm as an alternative. In this paradigm, enhancement bias is conceptualized as an egocentric pattern of discrepancies between self-ratings and relevant social noo ns. Correlations between a person's ratings of trait descriptiveness a nd ratings of trait desirability indicate the degree of enhancement (o r diminishment) when the group averages of these ratings are con troll ed. Two studies demonstrate that most people self-enhance, expect othe rs to self-enhance, and abstain from self-enhancement when instructed to estimate the social norms. Results suggest that enhancement is a co ntrollable bias rather than a cognitive illusion.