Teachersʹ inferences about studentsʹ self-concepts – the role of dimensional comparison

Research on dimensional comparison processes has shown that comparing oneʹs own verbal achievements with poorer results in math leads to a higher self-concept of verbal ability. It has been argued that when observers make inferences about a studentʹs academic self-concept, they do not usually have access to dimensional information. In the present study, 160 participants received a qualitative school report on a student with good achievement in German and either good or poor achievement in arithmetic. As predicted, participantsʹ evaluation of German achievement was equal in both conditions, but inferred German self-concepts and evaluations of the studentʹs verbal ability were higher when good achievement in German was presented together with poor achievement in arithmetic, as opposed to good achievement in arithmetic.