Self-evaluation Bias Research Articles

Self-referential processing in anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious psychiatric illness associated with significant medical and psychiatric comorbidity and impairment. Theoretical models of AN and self-report studies suggest that negative self-evaluation (i.e., low self-esteem) is related to the development and maintenance of AN. The goal of this study was to extend findings from self-report methodology using a neurocognitive task that probes self-evaluation implicitly and explicitly. We compared female adolescent and adult patients with AN (n = 35) and healthy controls (HC, n = 38) on explicit (i.e., endorsement of words as self-relevant), implicit (recall, recognition, reaction time), and composite (i.e., valence index, bias score, drift rates) indices of self-evaluation. We applied a drift-diffusion model to compute the drift rates, reflecting participants' decision-making process as to whether words were self-relevant. The association between self-evaluation indices and eating disorder severity was examined. There were significant Group × Condition interaction effects for all explicit and implicit measures (all p's ≤ .01), where the AN group endorsed, recalled, and recognized more negative relative to positive words than HC. The AN group had more negative valence index and bias scores, and slower drift rate away from negative words, reflecting more negative self-evaluation. The finding for recall was attenuated when individuals with depression were excluded. Measures of self-evaluation bias were not related to eating disorder severity. Using a neurocognitive approach that includes explicit and implicit indices of bias, results suggest that patients with AN have more negative self-evaluation. Due to the cross-sectional design, additional studies are needed to further evaluate directionality. Negative self-evaluation/low self-esteem is thought to contribute to eating disorder symptoms. Findings of this study using a neurocognitive task to probe self-evaluation suggested that individuals with anorexia nervosa have more negative self-evaluation, reflected by endorsing and remembering more negative (than positive) words compared to healthy controls, and doing so faster. Targeting the construct of negative self-evaluation in treatment of AN may be warranted.

A newly detected bias in self-evaluation.

The widely observed positive bias on self-evaluation is mainly explained by the self-enhancement motivation which minimizes negative feedbacks and emphasizes positive ones. Recent agent based simulations suggest that a positive bias also emerges if the sensitivity to feedbacks decreases when the self-evaluation increases. This paper proposes a simple mathematical model in which these different biases are integrated. Moreover, it describes an experiment (N = 1509) confirming that the sensitivity to feedbacks tends to decrease when self-evaluation increases and that a directly related positive bias is detected.

Linear and nonlinear relationships between self-evaluation and self-evaluation bias with grades

There is an ongoing debate whether a bias in self-evaluated competence (SE bias) affects academic achievement, typically assessed as grades. Different rationales about possible relations (e.g., linear, nonlinear, or no relations) between SE bias and academic achievement have been proposed. We compared these rationales in a study with 504 secondary school students in highest academic track secondary schools in math, using response surface analysis (RSA). At t1, students' self-evaluated math competence, their competence in math (i.e., objective competence test scores), and their academic achievement in math (i.e., math grades) were assessed. At t2, students' math grades were assessed again. The model that fit the data best was the beneficial self-evaluation and competence model, positing only linear relationships of self-concept and competence with change in grades beyond control variables (i.e., gender, parental education, number of books at home) and no SE bias effects.

Implications of Foreign Language Use for Creative Self-evaluation Bias and Creative Performance

Creative self-evaluations are important determinants of future creativity. Despite extensive research that identifies antecedents of individual creativity, little is known about what determines individuals’ biases in self-assessing their own creative performance. In particular, we do not know how contextual factors may influence individual creative self-evaluations. As workplaces become increasingly multilingual in the wake of globalisation, the language in which work is being performed has become one of these factors. In an experiment with working professionals (N = 86), we assessed actual creative performance using established creativity (specifically, idea generation) tasks. Participants worked on these tasks in either their native or a foreign language and were asked to self-evaluate their creative performance afterwards. Results show that creative self-evaluations generally deviate from actual performance, such that high (low) performers tend to underestimate (overestimate) their creative performance. While actual creative performance is lower when using a foreign language, the creative self-evaluation bias tends to be higher in a foreign compared to a native language setting. Further, we find tentative evidence that individuals who work in a foreign language and who are highly proficient in this language may be less biased in their creative self-evaluations. Unlike proficiency, foreign language anxiety does not appear to affect this bias.

Assessing Visual Avoidance of Faces During Real-Life Social Stress in Children with Social Anxiety Disorder: A Mobile Eye-Tracking Study

This study measured visual attention (fixation count, dwell time) during two real-life social stress tasks using mobile eye-tracking glasses in children (9–13 years) diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 25) and a healthy control group (HC; n = 30). The influence of state anxiety on attention allocation and negative self-evaluation biases regarding gaze behavior were also examined. Compared to the HC group, children with SAD showed visual avoidance (i.e., fewer fixations) of the faces of interaction partners during the second social stress task. While visual avoidance in HC children decreased with declining state anxiety from the first to the second social stress task, no such effect was found in children with SAD. A negative self-evaluation bias regarding gaze behavior in children with SAD was not found. In sum, measuring visual attention during real-life social situations may help enhance our understanding of social attention in childhood SAD.

Students’ self-evaluation bias of school competence and its link to teacher judgment in elementary school

Research on the self-evaluation bias of students' school competence has focused mainly on its correlates for students' school adaptation. This study focused on teachers' theories about students with a positive or negative bias in their self-evaluation of competence. French students enrolled in the third and fifth grades of elementary school (sample 1, N = 508; sample 2, N = 322) and their teachers (sample 1, N = 27; sample 2, N = 13) participated in this study. We examined the relationship between the more or less biased perceptions that students have of their competence in French and mathematics and their teacher's judgment. Models for each sample were tested while controlling for students’ performance, their gender, repeating of a school year, and average class level. The results for both samples showed that the more positively biased a student's evaluation of their competence was, the better their teacher’s judgment was.

Separating the effects of self-evaluation bias and self-view on grades

The present study aimed at investigating whether the absolute level of a person's self-view of competence or the discrepancy between the self-view and actual competence (self-evaluation bias) affect academic achievement operationalized as grades. An important theoretical and methodological problem in studies on this topic has been pointed out: The effects of the absolute level of the self-view and the self-evaluation bias have been confounded. We used a novel approach (condition-based regression analysis; Humberg et al., 2018) to disentangle these effects. We investigated 284 German students in Grade 10. Ability self-concepts and competences in math and German were assessed at t1. Additionally, we received the students' last report card grades and the grades from the following year (t2). The absolute level of ability self-concept significantly predicted subsequent grades within both domains when controlling for former grades, gender and socioeconomic variables. No effect of self-evaluation bias on grades was found.

Does classroom social comparison bias students’ evaluation of their own competence?

Overestimation and underestimation of students’ own competence result from social comparison in the classroom. There is some evidence that secondary school students compare their results with those of one or two same-sex others who perform slightly better than themselves. The first objective of this study was to replicate these findings among younger students (9–11 years old) in mathematics and language arts (French). The second objective was to consider the identification with the target as a moderator factor, because findings have been divergent regarding the positive or negative influence of social comparison on students’ academic self-evaluation. We expected firstly that absolute upward comparison to be beneficial for students’ self-evaluation bias of competence provided they identified with their upward target. Secondly, we expected their perception of their target’s competence (relative comparison) to contribute to students’ self-evaluation bias of competence and to be negatively related to it. The results indicated a tendency to compare upward and revealed that absolute upward comparison was positively related to the students’ self-evaluation bias of competence in mathematics and French. This relationship was stronger when the students identified with their upward target. In contrast, relative comparison was negatively related to their self-evaluation bias of competence in mathematics and French. To sum up, these results reveal the need to consider identification with the comparison target when studying the relationship between social comparison and academic self-evaluation and to consider relative and absolute comparison simultaneously in order to bring out the full contribution of social comparison in the classroom.

Self-Evaluation Bias and Social Comparison Motives: A Field Experiment on Social Aspirations

Based on a field experiment at Singapore hawker centres, I examined the effect of social comparison information on levels of social aspirations. I built my theoretical argument by integrating self- evaluation bias into the process of forming aspiration levels under the influence of social comparison information. I argue that social comparison information triggers a self-improvement motive for managers underestimating their relative performance, and this motive leads to higher social aspiration levels. However, if managers display overconfident self-evaluations, social comparison information negatively affects social aspirations for them as they are prone to self-enhancement motive. I test my hypothesis in a field experiment setting. I recruited food stall managers from hawker centres in Singapore and randomize them into treatment and control, so I can empirically show the existence of self-evaluation bias held by real business managers and gauge the causal effect of social comparison information on social aspiration levels. The empirical findings support my hypothesis.

Young Learners' Regulation of Practice Behavior in Adaptive Learning Technologies.

Although research indicates positive effects of Adaptive Learning Technologies (ALTs) on learning, we know little about young learners’ regulation intentions in this context. Learners’ intentions and self-evaluation determine the signals they deduce to drive self-regulated learning. This study had a twofold approach as it investigated the effect of feed-up and feed-forward reports on practice behavior and learning and explored learners’ self-evaluation of goal-attainment, performance and accuracy. In the experimental condition, learners described their goals and self-evaluated their progress in feed-up and forward reports. We found no conclusive effects of the feed-up and forward reports on learners’ regulation of practice behavior and learning. Furthermore, results indicated that young learners’ self-evaluations of goal attainment and performance were biased. Contrary to other research, we found learners both over- and underestimated performance which was strongly associated with over- or underestimation of goal attainment. Hence the signals learners used to drive regulation were often incorrect, tending to induce over- or under-practicing. Similarly, we found a bias in self-evaluation of accuracy and accuracy attainment. Learners over- or underestimated their accuracy, which was associated with over- or underestimation of accuracy attainment, which may in turn have affected effort regulation. We concluded that goal setting and self-evaluation in feed-up and forward reports was not enough to deduce valid regulatory signals. Our results indicate that young learners needed performance feedback to support correct self-evaluation and to correctly drive regulatory actions in ATLs.

Familial and personal characteristics profiles predict bias in academic competence and impostorism self-evaluations

ABSTRACT The goal of this longitudinal study was to explore the familial and personal characteristics that are potentially shared by two related phenomena observed in students: negative bias in self-evaluation of academic competence and impostorism. Specifically, this study aimed to examine whether the same set of characteristics (parental overprotection, conditional parental support, test anxiety, concern over mistakes and self-esteem) could be combined to predict both phenomena in high school students. To do so, these characteristics were first measured in 648 7th and 8th graders. In the three following years, students’ negative bias and impostorism were assessed. A latent profile analysis revealed a two-class model of characteristics. One group presented a “negative” pattern characterized by high parental overprotection, conditional parental support, test anxiety and concern over mistakes, and low self-esteem. Another group presented a “positive” pattern: students’ scores on all familial and personal variables were more favorable. As hypothesized, membership in the “negative” profile predicted negative bias and impostorism at T2, T3, and T4. This highlights the principle of multifinality and suggests that the two phenomena might be distinct aspects of a single broader issue such as a tendency toward a biased interpretation of information about one’s own competence, or self-protection.

Engineering Professors’ Perspectives on Gender and Assessment of Teamwork

Teamwork is an important component of engineering education programs; however, when not facilitated well, it can be a site of gender biases. The aim of this article is to thematically explore what and how engineering professors think about gender in the assessment of teamwork. In 2014 and 2015, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 engineering professors in the United States. Interviews covered a wide range of topics, with one section of the interviews devoted to teamwork specifically. For this article, the parts of the interviews about assessment of teamwork are analyzed. It was found that most participants were unaware of the ways in which gender can influence assessment and did not attempt to mitigate biases in self-evaluation, peer-evaluation, or team presentations. Recommendations for best practice are offered.

Trajectories of self-evaluation bias in primary and secondary school: Parental antecedents and academic consequences

Using a longitudinal approach spanning nine years of children's formal education, this study investigated the developmental trajectories of self-evaluation bias of academic competence. The study also examined how parenting styles were associated with the trajectories of bias in mid-primary school, and how those trajectories predicted academic outcomes at the end of secondary school and the beginning of college. A total of 711 children in 4th and 5th grades (mean age=10.71years old; 358 girls) participated in this study. Using a latent class growth modeling framework, results indicated that children can be classified in three latent growth trajectories of self-evaluation bias: the optimistic, realistic and pessimistic trajectories. These trajectories differed in their initial status of bias and also in their development over time. Children's adherence to a specific trajectory was associated with parenting variables in childhood. Finally, the optimistic, realistic, or pessimistic trajectories distinctively predicted achievement and persistence.

Study of Financial Literacy and Interpersonal Influence on Self-Evaluation Bias-An Empirical Analysis with Chinese Sample

Based on the theoretical analysis, with first-hand data collection and using multiple regression models, this study explored the relationship between financial literacy, interpersonal influence and self-evaluation bias and figured out interactive effect of financial literacy, interpersonal influence on self-evaluation bias. We draw on the following conclusions: (1) Three financial literacy factors (sophisticated financial literacy, basic financial literacy and numeracy) entered into the regression equation on self-evaluation bias, with a predictive power of 14.8%. (2) The interaction term of financial literacy and coworkers/classmates’ influence can negatively predict self-evaluation bias. (3) The interaction term of financial literacy and family members’ influence can negatively predict self-evaluation bias.

Relationships between the self-evaluation bias of academic performance and motivation in junior high and high school girls

Relationships between the self-evaluation bias of academic performance and motivation in junior high and high school girls

The risks for adolescents of negatively biased self-evaluations of social competence: The mediating role of social support

This study conducted among 544 adolescents (M = 15.1 years, SD = .82) examined whether perceived social support from parents and peers mediated the relationship between biased self-evaluations of social competence and internalizing problems. The results showed negative links between bias in self-evaluation and depressive symptoms, social anxiety and social avoidance. Bias in self-evaluation of social competence was more strongly related to perceived peer support than perceived parental support. Gender differences were observed in the mediating role of social support. Among boys, parental support was a partial mediator only of the link between bias in self-evaluation and depressive symptoms. While perceived peer support was a partial mediator of the links between bias in self-evaluation and depressive symptoms, social anxiety and social avoidance in girls, this was the case only for social avoidance in boys. These findings suggest that girls may show vulnerability to peer emotional support at an earlier age than boys.

Parents and their children's school lives--commentary on the special issue, 'Parents' role in children's school lives'.

Although it is teachers who play the key role in supporting children’s learning and theiracademicdevelopmentatschool,parentstoocanbeinvolvedintheirchildren’sacademiclives in many different ways. As the vast majority of parents consider academicachievement and adjustment to be important for their children’s future, parents oftenmake an effort to support their children’s learning, such as helping them with theirhomework. Many kinds of parental involvement have been described in the literature,although not all of them have been shown to be effective in promoting children’sacademic development (Chen & Stevenson, 1989; Cooper, Lindsay, & Nye, 2000; Fan CLevinet al.,1997;Patall,Cooper,RPomerantz,Moorman,LSilinskas,Niemi,Lerkkanen,NSilinskaset al.,2012).Inthisspecial issue, a number of scholars present their empirical findings on various aspects ofparental involvement, such as parental self-efficacy (Junttila & Vauras), socio-emotionalsupportandinstructionalbehaviours(Pino-Pasternak),parentalpragmaticandsocio-emo-tional support (Zhu, Tse, Cheung & Oyserman), parental involvement in children’shomework (i.e., autonomy support, control, interference, and cognitive engagement),parental goals and perceptions of children’s academic efficacy (Gonida & Cortina), andparents’ emotional support (Bouffard, Cote & Vezeau).The articles in this special issue also focus on many cognitive and motivationaloutcomes among children, such as agency beliefs; achievement goals (mastery- vs.performance-oriented tendencies; Gonida & Cortina; Pino-Pasternak); school-relatedsocial competence (Junttila & Vauras); possible selves, strategies, and the subjectivelikelihood of attaining these possible selves (Zhu et al.); self-evaluation bias andperceptionoftheavailabilityofparentalemotionalsupport(Bouffardet al.);andacademicself-efficacy (Gonida & Cortina). Several articles also examine the extent to which thesecognitive and motivational factors mediate the impact of parental involvement onchildren’s academic functioning (Bouffard et al.) and achievement (Gonida & Cortina).Theoretical assumptionsSeveral theories can be applied to explain the findings presented in the articles in thisspecial issue. Without exception, all the authors assume that it is parents who influence

The mediating effect of self-evaluation bias of competence on the relationship between parental emotional support and children's academic functioning.

It is well established that children's self-evaluation bias of competence is related to the quality of parent-child emotional relationship. Such biases are linked to children's academic functioning and achievement. Links have also been established between the quality of parent-child emotional relationship and children's academic functioning. No study has yet explored how the effects of children's emotional relationship with their parents and children's self-evaluation bias combine to explain their academic functioning. The first goal was to examine whether the quality of parental emotional support reported by both children and parents was related to the children's self-evaluation bias of competence. The second goal was to examine the relationships between children's and parents' reports of emotional support, and children's academic functioning as measured by teachers' report of their motivation, self-regulation of school activities, and academic achievement. The third goal was to determine whether a children's self-evaluation bias mediated the relationship between parental emotional support and academic functioning. In a 2-year longitudinal design, participants were 524 elementary pupils (grades 4 and 5), one of their parents, and their teachers. Our results indicated that a bias in self-evaluation in the first year of the study mediated the relationship between the quality of parental emotional support assessed at the first year and their school functioning evaluated by their teacher 1 year later. The mediational model received clear support when it refers to the emotional support reported by children, but mixed support when reported by parents.

Self-Esteem Modulates the Time Course of Self-Positivity Bias in Explicit Self-Evaluation

Researchers have suggested that certain individuals may show a self-positivity bias, rating themselves as possessing more positive personality traits than others. Previous evidence has shown that people evaluate self-related information in such a way as to maintain or enhance self-esteem. However, whether self-esteem would modulate the time course of self-positivity bias in explicit self-evaluation has never been explored. In the present study, 21 participants completed the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and then completed a task where they were instructed to indicate to what extent positive/negative traits described themselves. Behavioral data showed that participants endorsed positive traits as higher in self-relevance compared to the negative traits. Further, participants’ self-esteem levels were positively correlated with their self-positivity bias. Electrophysiological data revealed smaller N1 amplitude and larger late positive component (LPC) amplitude to stimuli consistent with the self-positivity bias (positive-high self-relevant stimuli) when compared to stimuli that were inconsistent with the self-positivity bias (positive-low self-relevant stimuli). Moreover, only in individuals with low self-esteem, the latency of P2 was more pronounced in processing stimuli that were consistent with the self-positivity bias (negative-low self-relevant stimuli) than to stimuli that were inconsistent with the self-positivity bias (positive-low self-relevant stimuli). Overall, the present study provides additional support for the view that low self-esteem as a personality variable would affect the early attentional processing.

Delusions of Expertise: The High Standard of Proof Needed to Demonstrate Skills at Horserace Handicapping

Gamblers who participate in skill-oriented games (such as poker and sports-betting) are motivated to win over the long-term, and some monitor their betting outcomes to evaluate their performance and proficiency. In this study of Australian off-track horserace betting, we investigated which levels of sustained returns would be required to establish evidence of skill/expertise. We modelled a random strategy to simulate 'naïve' play, in which equal bets were placed on randomly selected horses using a representative sample of 211 weekend races. Results from a Monte Carlo simulation yielded a distribution of return-on-investments for varying number of bets (N), showing surprising volatility, even after a large number of repeated bets. After adjusting for the house advantage, a gambler would have to place over 10,000 bets in individual races with net returns exceeding 9 % to be reasonably considered an expert punter (α = .05). Moreover, a record of fewer bets would require even greater returns for demonstrating expertise. As such, validated expertise is likely to be rare among race bettors. We argue that the counter-intuitively high threshold for demonstrating expertise by tracking historical performance is likely to exacerbate known cognitive biases in self-evaluation of expertise.