Agency-communion and Self-esteem Relations Are Moderated by Culture, Religiosity, Age, and Sex: Evidence for the "self-centrality Breeds Self-enhancement" Principle

Objective: Who has high self-esteem? Is it ambitious, competitive, outgoing people-agentic personalities? Or is it caring, honest, understanding people-communal personalities? The literature on agency-communion and self-esteem is sparse, indirect, and inconsistent. Based on William James's theorizing, we propose the "self-centrality breeds self-enhancement" principle. Accordingly, agency will be linked to self-esteem, if agency is self-central. Conversely, communion will be linked to self-esteem, if communion is self-central. But what determines the self-centrality of agency and communion? The literature suggests that agency is self-central in agentic cultures, as well as among nonreligious individuals, men, and younger adults. Communion is self-central in communal cultures, as well as among religious individuals, women, and older adults.

Method: This study examined 187,957 people (47% female; mean age = 37.49 years, SD = 12.22) from 11 cultures. The large sample size afforded us the opportunity to test simultaneously the effect of all four moderators in a single two-level model (participants nested in cultures).

Results: Results supported the unique moderating effect of culture, religiosity, age, and sex on the relation between agency-communion and self-esteem.

Conclusions: Agentic and communal people can both have high self-esteem, depending on self-centrality of agency and communion.