Definition
A bias in which people take responsibility for good outcomes, while attributing bad outcomes to external causes.
Introduction
The self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit for positive outcomes and blame negative outcomes on factors external to the self or outside one’s control. For example, a student who does well on an exam may ascribe the success to his or her intelligence and great study habits, while a poor showing would be attributed to difficult test questions, an unfair instructor, or a stressful workload that precluded adequate study time. The self-serving bias is evident when explaining our behavior in a wide range of domains, including academic and job performance, athletics, interpersonal outcomes, and driving ability.
Motivational Factors
A principal reason for the self-serving bias is the motivation to boost feelings of self-worth and protect the self from threatening information. This...
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Shrira, I. (2018). Self-Serving Bias. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1811-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1811-1
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