Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88648
Title: Consistent belief in a good true self in misanthropes and three interdependent cultures
Authors: De Freitas, Julian
Sarkissian, Hagop
Newman, George E.
Grossmann, Igor
De Brigard, Felipe
Luco, Andrés Carlos
Knobe, Joshua
Keywords: DRNTU::Humanities::General
Issue Date: 2017
Source: De Freitas, J., Sarkissian, H., Newman, G. E., Grossmann, I., De Brigard, F., Luco, A. C., & Knobe, J. (2018). Consistent belief in a good true self in misanthropes and three interdependent cultures. Cognitive Science, 42(51), 134-160. doi:10.1111/cogs.12505
Series/Report no.: Cognitive Science
Abstract: People sometimes explain behavior by appealing to an essentialist concept of the self, often referred to as the true self. Existing studies suggest that people tend to believe that the true self is morally virtuous; that is deep inside, every person is motivated to behave in morally good ways. Is this belief particular to individuals with optimistic beliefs or people from Western cultures, or does it reflect a widely held cognitive bias in how people understand the self? To address this question, we tested the good true self theory against two potential boundary conditions that are known to elicit different beliefs about the self as a whole. Study 1 tested whether individual differences in misanthropy—the tendency to view humans negatively—predict beliefs about the good true self in an American sample. The results indicate a consistent belief in a good true self, even among individuals who have an explicitly pessimistic view of others. Study 2 compared true self‐attributions across cultural groups, by comparing samples from an independent country (USA) and a diverse set of interdependent countries (Russia, Singapore, and Colombia). Results indicated that the direction and magnitude of the effect are comparable across all groups we tested. The belief in a good true self appears robust across groups varying in cultural orientation or misanthropy, suggesting a consistent psychological tendency to view the true self as morally good.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88648
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/48027
ISSN: 0364-0213
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12505
Schools: School of Humanities 
Rights: © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Cognitive Science and is made available with permission of Cognitive Science Society, Inc.
Fulltext Permission: open
Fulltext Availability: With Fulltext
Appears in Collections:SoH Journal Articles

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