The Holier-Than-Thou Effect

... people tend to be overly optimistic about their own abilities and fortunes - to overestimate their standing in class, their discipline, their sincerity.

Culture, religious belief and experience all help shape a person's sense of moral standing in relation to others, psychologists say, and new research is helping to clarify when such feelings of superiority are helpful and when they are self-defeating.

"But the point is that many types of behavior are driven far more by the situation than by the force of personality. What someone else did in that situation is a very strong warning about what you yourself would do."


So-called self-enhancers think that they're blessed, that they're highly appreciated by others and that they'll come out on top...
"Self-enhancers do very well, across the board, on measures of mental health in these situations,"


http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=360755&f0=25