Abstract
A review of studies on the effect of self-presentation styles on audiences' inferences about a presenter's ability revealed that the findings from vignette and laboratory experiments were inconsistent. It seemed that differences based on methodology were confounded with cultural explanations. To clarify this issue, laboratory and vignette experiments were conducted with Japanese female college students. In Experiment 1, in a laboratory, a confederate made either self-enhancing, self-effacing or no self-presentation of own ability before performing a task. The performance of the confederate was manipulated either as high or low. Self-enhancing presentation had a positive effect on audience's inferences of ability. This result was consistent with the findings of the previous laboratory experiments conducted with Westerners but inconsistent with those of the previous vignette experiments conducted with Asians. In Experiment 2, participants were given a vignette describing the situation in Experiment 1 before estimating the ability of the self-presenter. There was no effect of self-presentation style. Collectively, these results suggest that vignette studies are different from laboratory studies.
