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

本研究对日本学生的内隐自我评价进行了研究。为此，采用了姿态测量中的伪流水线技术。据称，在这项技术中，实验者通过生理设备测量参与者的真实态度。预计参与者将通过这一程序表达他们真正的自我评价。在这项实验中，假管道条件下的参与者被告知通过该设备预测测量结果，而控制条件下的参与者只被指示回答他们的自我评估。对两种类型的特质进行自我评价：自利性(SP)特质和其他获利(OP)特质。结果表明，与对照条件下相比，伪流水线条件下被试对SP特征的自我评价更高，对OP特征的自我评价更低。这一结果表明，当参与者只是被要求表达他们的自我评价时，他们并没有表达出他们真正的自我评价。我们进行了另一项研究，以检验日本人不愿表达他们真实的自我评价。具体地说，我们考察了日本人如何看待那些在SP特征或OP特征上自我提升的人。结果表明，与在OP特质上自我提升的人相比，日本人不喜欢在SP特质上自我提升的人，这支持了我们的观点。可以得出结论，日本人倾向于隐藏他们对自己的SP特征的高度自我评价，以在其他方面产生良好的印象。

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.