Dove Experiment and "The Looking-Glass Self"

The textbook I use for my social psychology class, Social Psychology, 10th ed. by David G. Myers talks a little bit in chapter 2 about sociologist Charles Cooley's theory of The Looking-Glass Self, which describes how we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving themselves. Another sociologist, George Herbert Mead (1934) expanded this concept, saying that it is not how others actually see us, but how we imagine they see us that is important to our self-concept. The bottom line according to Mead is that since people generally praise rather than criticize, we may overestimate others' appraisal in turn inflating our egos. This self-inflation is found mostly in Western countries.

Now that all being said, I have always wondered if there was some gender bias in that idea, that we overestimate and therefore inflate our egos. In other words, "Is that a 'male' thing?" Because as a woman in western society, I have often observed and felt the opposite. Then, I saw the "Dove Experiment" on youtube. And then that made me wonder if they did this experiment on males, would it turn out the same? Honestly, I think it would. Of course, I could totally be wrong. Anyway, it's one of those things that makes me wonder...

Watch the Dove experiment yourself and see what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

ADDENDUM!!!!!!

OMG, I know the following is supposed to be a parody of the other previous one, but it's kind of what I envisioned in my mind how this experiment would go with male participants. Go ahead and watch for a laugh! Now, I still don't know how this would turn out if actually done for real.