Measured Cross-Cultural Differences in Self-Enhancement and the Sensitivity of the Self-Enhancement Measure to the Modesty Response

Abstract

Two studies show the importance of culturally determined modesty for measured self-enhancement level. The first study shows differences between three self-enhancement measures in their sensitivity to modesty: The measure of academic self-enhancement was found to be the most sensitive to modesty. The above average response was less sensitive, whereas the correlation between criteria for inclusion in a desired group and self-characteristics was found not to be sensitive to the modesty response (n = 346). The second study compared the level of self-enhancement among three cultural groups: Singaporeans (n = 166), Israeli Druze (n = 177), and Israeli Jews (n = 206). The magnitude of cross-cultural differences for the different measures corresponded to their sensitivity to the modesty response. The role of modesty in measured cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement is discussed.