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Exploring Causes of the Self‐serving Bias
Author(s) -
Shepperd James,
Malone Wendi,
Sweeny Kate
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
social and personality psychology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.699
H-Index - 53
ISSN - 1751-9004
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00078.x
Subject(s) - psychology , attribution , variety (cybernetics) , cognition , attribution bias , cognitive bias , social psychology , moral responsibility , cognitive psychology , epistemology , philosophy , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science
The self‐serving bias refers to a tendency for people to take personal responsibility for their desirable outcomes yet externalize responsibility for their undesirable outcomes. We review a variety of explanations for this attribution bias. Although researchers have historically pitted cognitive and motivational explanations for the self‐serving bias against one another, cognitive and motivation processes often work in tandem to lead people to conclude that they are responsible for the desirable but not the undesirable outcomes.