Feeling "holier than thou": are self-serving assessments produced by errors in self- or social prediction?
- PMID: 11138757
- DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.79.6.861
Feeling "holier than thou": are self-serving assessments produced by errors in self- or social prediction?
Abstract
People typically believe they are more likely to engage in selfless, kind, and generous behaviors than their peers, a result that is both logically and statistically suspect. However, this oft-documented tendency presents an important ambiguity. Do people feel "holier than thou" because they harbor overly cynical views of their peers (but accurate impressions of themselves) or overly charitable views of themselves (and accurate impressions of their peers)? Four studies suggested it was the latter. Participants consistently overestimated the likelihood that they would act in generous or selfless ways, whereas their predictions of others were considerably more accurate. Two final studies suggest this divergence in accuracy arises, in part, because people are unwilling to consult population base rates when predicting their own behavior but use this diagnostic information more readily when predicting others'.
Similar articles
-
Prosocial behavior and reputation: When does doing good lead to looking good?Curr Opin Psychol. 2022 Feb;43:102-107. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.06.021. Epub 2021 Jul 9. Curr Opin Psychol. 2022. PMID: 34340143 Review.
-
Less Evil Than You: Bounded Self-Righteousness in Character Inferences, Emotional Reactions, and Behavioral Extremes.Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2017 Aug;43(8):1202-1212. doi: 10.1177/0146167217711918. Epub 2017 Jun 14. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2017. PMID: 28903714
-
Maybe holier, but definitely less evil, than you: Bounded self-righteousness in social judgment.J Pers Soc Psychol. 2016 May;110(5):660-74. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000050. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2016. PMID: 27176771
-
Do collectivists know themselves better than individualists? Cross-cultural studies of the holier than thou phenomenon.J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008 Dec;95(6):1252-67. doi: 10.1037/a0013195. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008. PMID: 19025282
-
A mile in moccasins: how situational experience diminishes dispositionism in social inference.Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2008 Jan;34(1):102-14. doi: 10.1177/0146167207309201. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2008. PMID: 18162659 Clinical Trial.
Cited by
-
Differential Evaluation of Straight and Gay Men for Nonverbal Effeminate Behavior.Arch Sex Behav. 2024 May;53(5):1843-1858. doi: 10.1007/s10508-023-02803-3. Epub 2024 Feb 16. Arch Sex Behav. 2024. PMID: 38366310
-
A newly detected bias in self-evaluation.PLoS One. 2024 Feb 8;19(2):e0296383. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296383. eCollection 2024. PLoS One. 2024. PMID: 38330018 Free PMC article.
-
Bounded research ethicality: researchers rate themselves and their field as better than others at following good research practice.Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 6;14(1):3050. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53450-0. Sci Rep. 2024. PMID: 38321164 Free PMC article.
-
When thinking you are better leads to feeling worse: Self-other asymmetries in pro-social behavior and increased anxiety during Covid-19.PLoS One. 2023 Sep 14;18(9):e0291329. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291329. eCollection 2023. PLoS One. 2023. PMID: 37708129 Free PMC article.
-
The paucity of morality in everyday talk.Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 12;13(1):5967. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-32711-4. Sci Rep. 2023. PMID: 37045974 Free PMC article.
Publication types
MeSH terms
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources