The Self in Relationships: Whether, How, and When Close Others Put the Self “in Its Place”

Abstract

We examined whether, how, and when relational closeness reduces self-enhancement and, more specifically, the self-serving bias (SSB). Relational closeness was either measured or induced. In several experiments, either relationally close or relationally distant dyads worked on interdependent outcomes tasks. The SSB was present in members of distant dyads (i.e., participants took individual credit for the dyadic success but blamed the partner for the dyadic failure), but absent in members of close dyads (i.e., participants were equally likely to take personal responsibility for the success or the failure of the dyad). The gracious attributional pattern of close dyad members is due to: (a) forming a favorable impression of the partner; and (b) expecting attributional generosity from the partner. In fact, when the partner violates this expectancy (i.e., when helshe displays the SSB), members of close dyads respond by manifesting the SSB in turn. We discuss these and several other contingencies that are likely to keep an individual's self-enhancement tendencies in check.