Cultural and Personality Determinants of Leniency in Self-Rating among Chinese People

Abstract

This study examines how cultural values (i.e., individualism and collectivism) and personality (i.e., self‐perceived superiority and exhibitionism) jointly affect self‐rating among Chinese respondents from mainland China (N=161), Hong Kong (N=350), and Taiwan (N=398). The results demonstrated that respondents with a more individualistic cultural orientation exhibit greater leniency in self‐rating than those with a more collectivistic cultural orientation. Furthermore, self‐perceived superiority and exhibitionism are related to high self‐ratings among individuals who expressed low individualism values, but not among individuals who expressed high individualism or collectivism values. The results suggest that self‐rating research needs to take both the individual’s cultural values and personality traits into account.

Biased Self‐Perception Tendencies: Self‐Enhancement/Self‐Diminishment and Leader Derailment in Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures

“…For example, Lo, Helwig, Chen, Ohashi, and Cheng (2011) found that self-enhancing and selfdiminishing tendencies coexist in both Eastern and Western cultures. Further, Xie, Chen, and Roy (2006) report that some individuals from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan demonstrated self-enhancement and that these individuals tended to be individualistic. Kobayashi and Brown (2003) also found that in Japan and America, people with high self-esteem were more likely to self-enhance than were low self-esteem people.…”

Supply Chain Operational Performance and Its Influential Factors: Cross National Comparison between Japan and China

“…Since the Japanese respondents were told that the LSC evaluations were a contribution for academic research and their results would be kept secret, the modestly rating may be tracked down among Japanese participants. On the other side, some studies indicate that, with the economic development, Chinese people become more and more individualistic, and they have a tendency to evaluate themselves rather leniency (Xie et al, 2006), therefore, it could be speculated that Chinese people may rate themselves higher than their actual performance.…”

“Hey everyone, look at me helping you!”: A contingency view of the relationship between exhibitionism and peer-oriented helping behaviors

“…Others could limit employees' voluntary work behaviors, targeted at peers or the organization in general, such as cynical attitudes (Andersson and Bateman, 1997), psychopathic tendencies (Smith et al, 2016), or monetary-oriented motives (Tang et al, 2008). By examining how employees' exhibitionism-which reflects a desire for self-display and to be the center of attention (Xie et al, 2006)-may enhance their propensity to engage in voluntary behaviors targeted at peers, we expand this research stream. Even if this personal characteristic may have a negative connotation and convey a certain sense of self-importance (Meurs et al, 2013), we posit it can fuel employees with discretionary energy that enables and motivates them to help their colleagues on a voluntary basis.…”

“…We propose another critical but unexplored impetus of peer-oriented helping behavior, namely, the level of exhibitionism that employees display. We define exhibitionism as a desire to receive attention from others (Xie et al, 2006), such that people who score high on it "cannot tolerate being ignored, they need to be the centre of others' attention, and they are highly self-promotional" (Meurs et al, 2013: 372). It thus differs from previously investigated personal factors.…”