Self-Esteem and Trait Importance Moderate Cultural Differences in Self-Evaluations

It is widely assumed that East Asians evaluate themselves less positively than do Westerners, but this assumption lacks consistent support. In this report, the authors provide evidence that cultural differences in self-evaluations are moderated by two factors: trait importance and self-esteem. American and Chinese college students completed a self-esteem scale and then evaluated themselves on traits that varied in their cultural importance. Culture and trait importance did not affect the self-evaluations of high self-esteem participants, but did affect the self-evaluations of low self-esteem participants. Whereas low self-esteem Americans evaluated their agentic qualities more positively than did low self-esteem Chinese, low self-esteem Chinese evaluated their communal qualities more positively than did low self-esteem Americans. The discussion considers the implications of these findings for theories of cultural differences and self-esteem functioning.