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An experimental study on Japanese self-effacing tendencies : A stringent test on the possibility of self-presentation

Research Project

Project/Area Number 13610117
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field 教育・社会系心理学
Research InstitutionThe University of Tokyo

Principal Investigator

YAMAGUCHI Susumu  The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (80134427)

Project Period (FY) 2001 – 2002
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2002)
Budget Amount *help
¥2,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Keywordsself-esteem / self-effacement / self-presentation / 比較文化
Research Abstract

An experiment was conducted to probe the hidden self-evaluations among Japanese students. For this purpose, the bogus-pipeline technique developed in attitude measurement was used. In this technique, an experimenter allegedly measures a participant's real attitude by a physiological device. It was expected that participants would express their genuine self-evaluations with this procedure. In this experiment, participants in the bogus-pipeline condition were told to predict the results of the measurement by the device, whereas participants in the control condition were just instructed to answer their self-evaluations. Self-evaluations were made on two types of traits : self-profitable (SP) traits and other-profitable (OP) traits. The results revealed that the participants in the bogus-pipeline condition expressed higher self-evaluation on the SP traits and lower self-evaluation on the OP traits, compared with those in the control condition. This result indicates that the participants did not express their genuine self-evaluations when they were just asked to express their self-evaluations. We conducted another study to examine Japanese reluctance to express their genuine self-evaluations. Specifically, we examined how Japanese would perceive others who either self-enhance on SP traits or OP traits. The result indicated that Japanese did not like those who self-enhance on SP traits compared with those who self-enhance on OP traits, supporting our arguments. It can be concluded that Japanese tend to hide their high self-evaluation on their SP traits to generate favorable impression among others.

Report

(3 results)
  • 2002 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report Summary
  • 2001 Annual Research Report

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Published: 2001-04-01   Modified: 2016-04-21  

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