Enhanced Versus Simply Positive: A New Condition-Based Regression Analysis to Disentangle Effects of Self-Enhancement from Effects of Positivity of Self-View

Here, we provide you with a preprint and with supplemental material (including data and R-Codes) to the manuscript "Enhanced Versus Simply Positive: A New Condition-Based Regression Analysis to Disentangle Effects of Self-Enhancement from Effects of Positivity of Self-View" by Humberg et al (in press). If you like to get in contact with us, please write an email to [e-mail]

Abstract:
Despite a large body of literature and ongoing refinements of analytical techniques, research on the consequences of self-enhancement (SE) is still vague about how to define SE effects, and empirical results are inconsistent. In this paper, we point out that part of this confusion is due to a lack of conceptual and methodological differentiation between effects of individual differences in how much people enhance themselves (SE) and in how positively they view themselves (positivity of self-view; PSV). We show that methods commonly used to analyze SE effects are biased because they cannot differentiate between the effects of PSV and the effects of SE. We provide a new condition-based regression analysis (CRA) that unequivocally identifies effects of SE by testing intuitive and mathematically derived conditions on the coefficients in a bivariate linear regression. Using data from three studies on intellectual SE (total N = 566), we then illustrate that the CRA provides novel results as compared with traditional methods. Results suggest that many previously identified SE effects are in fact effects of PSV alone. The new CRA approach thus provides a clear and unbiased understanding of the consequences of SE. It can be applied to all conceptualizations of SE and, more generally, to every context in which the effects of the discrepancy between two variables on a third variable are examined.

在此，我们向您提供了一篇预印本及其补充材料（包括数据和R代码），该材料为Humberg等人即将出版的论文《增强效应与单纯积极效应的比较：一种新的基于条件回归分析，用以区分自我增强效应与自我观感积极效应》的补充。如需与我们取得联系，请发送电子邮件至[e-mail]。

摘要：尽管文献资料丰富且分析技术不断改进，但关于自我增强（SE）后果的研究在如何定义SE效应上仍然模糊不清，且实证结果不统一。在本研究中，我们指出，这种混淆部分源于对人们在多大程度上增强自我（SE）以及他们自我观感的积极程度（自我观感积极度；PSV）之间差异的个体差异效应缺乏概念和方法论上的区分。我们表明，通常用于分析SE效应的方法存在偏差，因为它们无法区分PSV效应和SE效应。我们提供了一种新的基于条件回归分析（CRA），通过在二元线性回归系数上测试直观和数学推导的条件，明确识别SE效应。然后，利用关于智力SE的三项研究数据（总N=566），我们展示了CRA与传统方法相比提供了新颖的结果。结果表明，许多先前识别的SE效应实际上是PSV单独的效应。因此，新的CRA方法提供了对SE后果的清晰且无偏的理解。它可应用于SE的所有概念化，更普遍地，可应用于检查两个变量之间的差异对第三个变量效应的每一个情境。