Self‐enhancement and physical health: A meta‐analysis

A prior meta‐analysis yielded a positive relation between self‐enhancement and psychological health. This article presents the first meta‐analysis of the association between self‐enhancement and physical health (k = 87; N = 22,415). The meta‐analysis relied predominantly on social desirability as an operationalization of self‐enhancement and secondarily on comparative judgement and narcissism. Further, the meta‐analysis operationalized physical health in terms of self‐rated health, symptoms and biomarkers. Overall, self‐enhancement yielded a near‐zero association with physical health, r = .01. However, this association was more pronounced for comparative judgement (r = .18, k = 6) than social desirability (r = .03, k = 41) or narcissism (r = −.0001, k = 8), and for self‐rated health (r = .09, k = 9) than symptoms (r = .01, k = 29) or biomarkers (r = −.13, k = 17). The association between self‐enhancement and physical health fluctuates across measures of both constructs calling for more focussed and nuanced investigations.