Attribution of success and failure revisited, or: The motivational bias is alive and well in attribution theory

TLDR

Causal attributions are questioned for whether they serve to protect or enhance self‑esteem, with prior reviews suggesting self‑serving effects for success but not failure. The review discusses processes that can suppress or reverse the self‑serving effect. Self‑serving effects for both success and failure appear in most but not all experimental paradigms, and when present they are better understood in motivational terms rather than information‑processing.

Abstract

A bstract Do causal attributions serve the need to protect and / or enhance self‐esteem? In a recent review, Miller and Ross (1975) proposed that there is evidence for self‐serving effect in the attribution of success but not in the attribution of failure; and that this effect reflects biases in information‐processing rather than self‐esteem maintenance. The present review indicated that self‐serving effects for both success and failure are obtained in most but not all experimental paradigms. Processes which may suppress or even reverse the self‐serving effect were discussed. Most important, the examination of research in which self‐serving effects are obtained suggested that these attributions are better understood in motivational than in information‐processing terms.