Premium
Biased and unbiased self‐evaluations of ability: The effects of further testing
Author(s) -
Vries Nanne K.,
Knippenberg Ad
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1987.tb00756.x
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , test (biology) , self evaluation , function (biology) , cognitive psychology , applied psychology , paleontology , evolutionary biology , biology
Ability evaluations were studied as a function of anticipated future testing and the use of a logical reasoning filler test, and performance level. Subjects who performed successfully ascribed themselves higher relative ability and higher absolute ability, and they were more satisfied with their performance than subjects who performed worse than their co‐actor. Low scoring subjects who did not anticipate taking a further test gave higher ratings of their relative ability and satisfaction with performance than low scoring subjects who did expect future testing. This result suggests that, in situations in which a subject's poor performance gives rise to self‐protective tendencies, biases in ability evaluation are inhibited when further testing is anticipated.