Sj. Heine et al., Cultural differences in self-evaluation - Japanese readily accept negativeself-relevant information, J CROSS-CUL, 32(4), 2001, pp. 434-443
The authors investigated compensatory self-enhancement in Japanese and Cana
dian university students. Research has revealed that when North Americans p
ublicly discover a weakness in one self domain, they typically bolster thei
r self-assessments in another unrelated domain. This effect is less commonl
y found in private settings. Following a private failure experience on a cr
eativity task, Canadians discounted the negative feedback. although they di
d not exhibit a compensatory self-enhancing response. In contrast, Japanese
were highly responsive to the failure feedback and showed evidence of reve
rse compensatory self-enhancement. This study provides further evidence tha
t self-evaluation maintenance strategies are elusive among Japanese samples
.