Describe and give examples of four self-serving biases we regularly exhibit.

Describe and give examples of four self-serving biases we regularly exhibit.

The tendency to perceive and present oneself favourably. Fundamentally, in "western" cultures, we take credit for our successes, but we are less likely to take the blame for our failures.

Examples:

1) In what can be considered a textbook example of self-serving bias in the classroom, those students who get an 'A' grade consider themselves smart, while those who get an 'F' grade blame the teacher, even accusing her of giving them such a grade because she doesn't like them.

2) A sales representative takes the credit for completing his targets for five months in a row, but when he fails in the sixth month, he blames external factors like market trends, recession, change in company's policy, etc.

3) In sports, when a team wins, the captain is all praise for the team's efforts. However, when the team loses, he simply states that it was just not their day, or worse, blames the conditions or referee for their loss.

4) An individual's meeting with a client turns out to be a disaster because of an ineffective sales pitch. Instead of acknowledging the fact that he was not fully prepared, the individual either question's the client's credibility, or blames his competitor for his own failure to bag the contract.