Self-Serving Bias | Definition, Explanation & Examples
Self-serving bias describes the human tendency to take credit for our successes and to blame others or circumstances for our failures. In other words, our success is down to our personal traits and character, and our failure is due to external factors beyond our control.
It is difficult to learn from our mistakes if we suffer from self-serving bias because it stops our reflecting on what we have done and analyzing why it went well (or went wrong). It is common to encounter self-serving bias when people are explaining underperformance in sports, driving, or work.
What causes self-serving bias?
There are several ideas that can help us to explain what lies behind self-serving bias.
- We need to assign responsibility: Some psychologists believe that assigning responsibility (sometimes called “causal attribution”) helps us to cope with a universe that would otherwise seem random. So we tend to assign responsibility for events to people or outside factors. This can be affected by a number of cognitive biases:
- Confirmation bias might lead us to blame a driver for a road incident if that driver fits a stereotype we hold about the driving competence of a particular group of people.
- The post hoc fallacy might lead us to attribute the cause of an event to something that precedes it, when in fact there is no causal link at all.
- We need to preserve our self-esteem: The need to feel good about ourselves drives the self-serving bias. It leads us to take the credit for positive events (even if they are more to do with others or due to circumstances) and to blame others for negative events, rather than accepting responsibility for mistakes we have made.
- We tend to align our expectations: Other explanations for the self-serving bias include the suggestion that we make judgments based on our expectations. If the outcome of an event aligns with our expectations, then we will attribute its cause to internal factors. If, on the other hand, expectations are not met, then we will look for outside factors to blame.
Self-serving bias in psychology example
In situations where someone’s self-esteem is under threat, it is quite common to find self-serving bias.
The study used three data sources from an event:
- Runners’ previous best times were collected at registration in order to assign them an appropriate start number.
- The race’s official timing data were collected from the race-wide chip worn by all runners.
- One week after the race, each runner was asked to complete a survey. In the survey, the participants were asked for their finishing time, their satisfaction with the event, and other questions to help the researchers control for a number of variables.
The researchers found that runners whose finish time was worse than their best time were more likely to incorrectly report their actual time by stating a faster result, whereas those whose finish time was better than their previous best were less likely to overstate their achievement. The researchers surmised that, as there was no external benefit in overstating their achievement, those runners were doing so to preserve their self-esteem. This was taken as evidence of self-serving bias.
Another interesting observation was that those runners who exaggerated their performance showed a lower level of satisfaction with the event overall. They were also more likely to criticize external factors such as the weather or the location of water stations. This seemed to confirm that self-serving bias was leading to external rather than internal factors being blamed.
Other attribution bias types
Heuristics (mental shortcuts) enable us to make sense of potentially overwhelming amounts of data, and most of the time, they work well. Sometimes, however, we will attribute causes incorrectly due to a number of reasons.
- Fundamental attribution error: This describes the overestimation of another person’s character traits and underestimation of external factors such as context and situation when judging their actions or behavior.
- Actor-observer bias: When assessing (usually undesirable) behavior, we tend to attribute the cause to internal factors when considering others’ actions (as an observer), while attributing the cause to external factors when considering our own behavior (as an actor).
- Group-serving bias (ultimate attribution error): This is an extension of the self-serving bias to groups we associate with. It can be seen as self-serving bias in the plural. We credit the group with its successes and blame outside factors for its failures.
Frequently asked questions about self-serving bias
- What is the difference between actor-observer bias and self-serving bias?
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Both actor-observer bias and self-serving bias are types of cognitive bias. Although they both help to explain our behavior, they are quite distinct.
Self-serving bias explains how we analyze the way we have behaved, depending on whether the outcome is positive or negative. For example, if we perform well in an examination, we are likely to credit ourselves, whereas if we perform badly, we will criticize the questions, our health, or other external factors.
Actor-observer bias describes how we attribute the cause of undesirable behavior in others to their own characteristics and our own undesirable behavior to external factors. If we (the actor) are late for a meeting, we might blame the traffic or other drivers, but if someone else is late, we (the observer) blame their lack of planning or foresight.
- What are some examples of self-serving bias in real life?
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Self-serving bias is quite easily observed in real life. For example, if I am late for work, I might easily blame the traffic, a slow driver I was stuck behind, or having to wait for a passenger. If I am on time, I might congratulate myself for planning ahead and taking account of possible hold-ups. In both cases, my self-esteem is preserved.
The old saying “a bad workman always blames his tools” is another way of stating at least part of the self-serving bias. The other part is taking credit when things go well.
- Is self-serving bias a problem?
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Self-serving bias is a problem for us because it hampers improvement and growth. Instead of an honest reflection and appraisal of why things have gone well or badly, we blame outside forces for our own shortcomings.
