Humble Self-Enhancement: Religiosity and the Better-than-Average Effect

Abstract

Prior research has linked religiosity to certain forms of self-enhancement. We extend this literature by three studies linking religiosity to the famous better-than-average effect. First, a reanalysis of self-judgments of desirable characteristics in 15 nations showed that the better-than-average effect was stronger in more religious countries, even controlling for differences in economic inequality. Second, in two online surveys totaling 1000 Americans, the better-than-average effect was stronger among more religious individuals. Several observations indicated that this relation was due to individuals self-stereotyping with respect to their religious ingroups. In particular, the relation was restricted to characteristics on the warmth dimension, consistent with the religious stereotype, and the average religious ingroup member tended to be judged even more favorably than self. The latter phenomenon, which we term “humble self-enhancement”, is consistent with other studies linking stronger religiosity to greater favoritism of the religious ingroup and greater derogation of religious outgroups.