Do religious people self-enhance?

Sedikides, Constantine and Gebauer, Jochen (2021) Do religious people self-enhance? Current Opinion in Psychology, 40, 29-33. (doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.08.002).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We ask if and when religious individuals self-enhance more than non-believers. First, religious individuals self-enhance on domains central to their self-concept. Specifically, they exhibit the Better-Than-Average Effect: They rate themselves as superior on attributes painting them as good Christians (e.g., traits like “loving” or “forgiving,” Biblical commandments) than on control attributes. Likewise, they exhibit the Overclaiming Effect: They assert superior, but false, knowledge on domains highly relevant to religiosity (e.g., international health charities, humanitarian aid organizations) than on control domains. Second, religious individuals self-enhance strongly in religious (than secular) cultures, which elevate religion to a social value. Finally, Christians may self-enhance in general, perhaps due to their conviction that they have a special relationship with God

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Sedikides Gebauer_2020, Current Opinion - Accepted Manuscript

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Accepted/In Press date: 3 August 2020

e-pub ahead of print date: 10 August 2020

Published date: August 2021

Additional Information: Funding Information: Supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG; Grants GE 2515/2-1 and GE 2515/6-1 ) and the John Templeton Foundation (The Character Project at Wake Forest University; Grant ID # 15519-11-011 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd