PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Endo et al. / RELATIONSHIP BIASES ACROSS CULTURES Culture and Positive Illusions in Close Relationships: How My Relationships Are Better Than Yours

Although routinely observed among North Americans, self-enhancing biases have been elusive in studies conducted with Japanese. The authors conducted two studies of relation-ship-serving biases (RSBs) with Japanese, Asian Canadian, and European Canadian participants. In both studies, mem-bers of all three cultural groups viewed their own relationships (with their best friend, their closest family member, and their romantic partner) as more positive than those of their peers, and to roughly the same extent. Of importance, however, (a) RSBs were largely uncorrelated with both self-esteem and self-serving biases and (b) Japanese (but not the other two cultural groups’) RSBs were paralleled by tendencies to view their relationship partners more positively than themselves. The authors suggest that relationship enhancement serves a different function than self-enhancement, aiding the individual’s quest for connection and belongingness with others. One of the most robust findings in social psychology is that Westerners tend to view themselves in unrealistically positive terms. That is, frequently they distort their per-ceptions of themselves and their social worlds such that they appear better, more in control, and more likely to have a positive future than their peers (e.g., Heine &amp