The volume begins with a historical overview of the self in social judgment and outlines the major issues. Subsequent chapters, all written by leading experts in their respective areas, identify and elaborate four major themes regarding the self in social judgment:

· the role of the self as an information source for evaluating others, or what has been called 'social projection'
· the assumption of personal superiority as reflected in the pervasive tendency for people to view their characteristics more favorably than those of others
· the role of the self as a comparison standard from or toward which other people's behaviors and attributes are assimilated or contrasted
· the relative weight people place on the individual and collective selves in defining their attributes and comparing them to those of other people