How do consumers reconcile conflicting motives for social group identification and individual uniqueness? Four studies demonstrate that consumers simultaneously pursue assimilation and differentiation goals on different dimensions of a single choice: they assimilate to their group on one...

People typically provide overly optimistic social comparisons when rating their competence relative to their peers. Previous work has shown that poor performers overestimate their performances the most because their incompetence deprives them of the skills needed to recognize their deficits....

The results of six experiments indicate that emotional intensity reduces perceived psychological distance. People who described events emotionally rather than neutrally perceived those events as less psychologically distant, including embarrassing autobiographical events (Experiment 1), past and...