Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction?

TLDR

Research indicates that people tend to attribute success to themselves and failure to external factors, with limited evidence for self‑protective attributions, and suggests that self‑enhancing biases may arise from expectancy, perceived covariation, and misconstrued contingency rather than motivational distortion. The authors investigate whether self‑serving biases influence causal attributions. The review found little empirical support for self‑serving biases affecting causal attributions in a general sense. Citation: Hastorf, Schneider, & Polefka (1970).

Abstract

A review of the evidence for and against the proposition that self-serving biases affect attributions of causality indicated that there is little empirical support for the proposition in its most general form. The literature provides some support for the contention that individuals engage in self-enhancin g attributions under conditions of success, but only minimal evidence was found to suggest that individuals engage in self-protecti ve attributions under conditions of failure. Moreover, it was proposed that the self-enhancing effect may not be due to motivational distortion, but rather to the tendency of people (a) to expect their behavior to produce success, (b) to discern a closer covariation between behavior and outcomes in the case of increasing success than in the case of constant failure, and (c) to misconstrue the meaning of contingency. We are prone to alter our perception of causality so as to protect or enhance our self esteem. We attribute success to our own dispositions and failure to external forces. (Hastorf, Schneider, & Polefka, 1970,