 Such skeptical assessments overlook three important points.First, because most people have relatively positive self-views, evidence of a preference for positive evaluations in unselected samples may in reality reflect a preference for evaluations that are self-verifying, because for such individuals self-verification and positivity strivings are indistinguishable.No number of studies of participants with positive self-views can determine whether self-verification or self-enhancement strivings are more common.