Journal article

Punishing hubris: the perils of overestimating one's status in a group.

Cameron Anderson, Daniel R Ames, Samuel D Gosling

Pers Soc Psychol Bull | Published : 2008

Abstract

Individuals engage in status self-enhancement when they form an overly positive perception of their status in a group. We argue that status self-enhancement incurs social costs and, therefore, most individuals perceive their status accurately. In contrast, theories of positive illusions suggest status self-enhancement is beneficial for the individual and that most individuals overestimate their status. We found supportive evidence for our hypotheses in a social relations analysis of laboratory groups, an experiment that manipulated status self-enhancement, and a study of real-world groups. Individuals who engaged in status self-enhancement were liked less by others and paid less for their wo..

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