It Depends on Who I Am! Self‐Construals, Attention to Comparative Feedback, and Self‐Assessments of Performance

Feedback and self‐assessment can improve awareness and enhance training or learning processes. This study explores whether self‐construals correspond to relative attention paid to either social‐ or temporal‐comparative feedback, and self‐assessments of performance following feedback. We distinguish between independent and interdependent self‐construal differences. A total of 214 undergraduate participants in Korea ( n = 109) and the United States ( n = 105) completed multiple rounds of a task and simultaneously received manipulated temporal‐ and social‐comparative feedback on performance following each round. Participants with independent self‐construals were more attentive to temporal‐comparative feedback, while those with interdependent self‐construals were more attentive to social‐comparative feedback. More positive combinations of comparative feedback led to more positive self‐assessments, while more negative combinations of comparative feedback had the opposite relationship, and all relationships between feedback combinations and self‐assessments were positively moderated when participants had more independent self‐construals. These results highlight the importance of providing multiple types of comparative feedback to ensure that individuals have access to self‐relevant feedback that matches their self‐construal orientation. Additionally, efforts to assess training or educational programs/processes need to collect objective measures of performance, such as accuracy of tasks, alongside self‐assessed performance, because self‐assessments may be subject to self‐construal related biases.