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Bond, M.H., Leung, K., & Wan, K.-C. 1982 The social impact of self-effacing attributions: The Chinese case. Journal of Social Psychology, 118, 157-166. Bradley, G.W. 1978 Self-serving biases in the attribu- process: A reexamination of the fact or fiction tion question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 56-71. Davis, M.H. & Stephan, W.G. 1980 Attributions for exam performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 10, 235-248. Fry, P.S. & Ghosh, R. 1980 Attributions of success and failure: Comparison of cultural differences between Asian and Caucasian children. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 11, 343-363. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. 1982 The self-serving attributional bias: Beyond self- Journal of Experimental Social Psychol- presentation. ogy, 18, 56-67. Hewstone, M. 1990 The eultimate attribution error f? A review of the literature on intergroup causal attri- European Journal of Social Psychology, 20, bution. 311-335. Hewstone, M., Bond, M.H., & Wan, K.-C. 1993 Social facts and social attributions: The explanation of intergroup differences in Hong Kong. Social Cogni- tion, 2, 142-157. Hewstone, M. & Ward, C. 1985 Ethnocentrism and causal attribution in Southeast Asia. Journal of Per- and Social Psychology, 48, 614-623. sonality Kashima, Y. & Triandis, H.C. 1986 The self-serving bias in attributions as a coping strategy: A cross- study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, cultural 17, 83-97. Heine, S.J. & Lehman, D.R. (in press) The cultural con- of self-enhancement: An examination of struction group-serving biases. Journal of Personality and So- Psychology. cial Kitayama, S. 1995 Cultural psychology of the self. Paper presented at the Inaugural Conference of the Asian Association of Social Psychology, June 21-23, Hong-Kong.
Markus, H.R. & Kitayama, S. 1991 Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253. Miller, D.T. & Ross, M. 1975 Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction? Psychological Bulletin, 82. 213-225. A. M. 1995 When modesty prevails: Differential favorablity of self-presentation to friends and stran- gers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Morris, M.W. & Peng, K. 1994 Culture and cause: 69, 1120-1138. American and Chinese attributions for social and physical events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 949-971. Pettigrew, T.W. 1979 The ultimate attribution error: Extending Allport's cognitive analysis of prejudice. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 5, 461 476. Petty, R.E. & Cacioppo, J.T. 1981 Attitude and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. Iowa: Wm. C. Brown. Tice, D.M., Butler, J.L., Muraven, M. B., & Stillwell, Wheeler, L., Reis, H.T., & Bond, M.H. 1989 Collectivism-individualism in everyday life: The middle kingdom and the melting pot. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 79-86. Another Type of Self-serving Bias: Coexistence of Self-effacing and Group-serving Tendencies in Attribution in the Japanese Culture YUKIKO MURAMOTO (The University of Tokyo) SUSUMU YAMAGUCHI (The University of Tokyo) The present research aimed to demonstrate the coexistence of self-effacing and group-serving tendencies in attribution of success and failure in the Japanese culture. The following hypotheses were examined by two experiments: (1) Individuals within a group tend to make self-effacing attribution for their personal performance and group-serving attribution for performance of their group. (2) These tendencies appear more strongly when they express their attribution in the presence of ingroup members, because it reflects a selfpresentation strategy to gain one's positive public image. The results of two experiments confirmed Hypothesis 1: The coexistence of self-effacing and group-serving tendencies was found. Both of these tendencies reflect an individual's motivation to support other members' esteem. At the same time, group-serving attribution could be understood as a way of indirect self-enhancement. On the other hand, the results provided mixed support for Hypothesis 2. These results, however, suggest that group-serving attribution is not a mere self-presentation strategy toward ingroup members, but a more deeply internalized tendency of the Japanese people. Key words: causal attribution, self-serving bias, self-effacing tendency, group-serving tendency