Egotism in prestige ratings of sydney suburbs: Where i live is better than you think

Abstract

Findings from the social psychological literature on egotism and in-group favouritism led to the hypothesis that residents of Sydney suburbs would overvalue the prestige of their own suburb as compared with ratings by non-residents, particularly in low-prestige suburbs. As part of an updating of the Congalton (1969) list of Sydney suburbs and their median social standing, 410 respondents selected from 26 Federal electoral districts each rated 160 of 480 suburbs on 1-to-7 Likert scales. In 12 of 30 local government areas (LGAs), residents rated suburbs in their “home” LGA significantly higher than non-residents did; this was also true when ratings were summed over all 30 LGAs. More importantly, 10 of these 12 LGAs were in the lower half of the rank order of mean LGA prestige. Discussion focusses on the conflict between the need to maintain self-esteem and group esteem in low-prestige suburbs and the images of these suburbs conveyed by the mass media.