A soon-to-be released study in Psychological Science suggests that the self-pride found among the residents of certain countries is not necessarily a cultural difference but actually relates to economic inequality within countries.

According to a release from the Association for Psychological Science, the differences in “self-enhancement” were originally thought to be differences between Eastern and Western philosophies. But researchers surveyed 1,625 people in 15 culturally diverse countries and discovered that economic inequality was the greatest factor in predicting self-enhancement.

Researchers found that while everyone across the world rated themselves above average, “the more economically unequal the country, the greater was its participants’ self-enhancement.”

“We don’t know the precise mechanism, but it seems unlikely that it is primarily an East-West difference,” said researcher Steve Loughnan. “It’s got to do with how your society distributes its resources.”