A statistical review of the literature concerning the self-serving attribution bias in interpersonal influence situations

Black swans, cognition, and the power of learning from failure

Failure carries undeniable stigma and is difficult to confront for individuals, teams, and organizations. Disciplines such as commercial and military aviation, medicine, and business have long histories of grappling with it, beginning with the recognition that failure is inevitable in every human endeavor. Although conservation may arguably be more complex, conservation professionals can draw on the research and experience of these other disciplines to institutionalize activities and attitudes that foster learning from failure, whether they are minor setbacks or major disasters. Understanding the role of individual cognitive biases, team psychological safety, and organizational willingness to support critical self-examination all contribute to creating a cultural shift in conservation to one that is open to the learning opportunity that failure provides. This new approach to managing failure is a necessary next step in the evolution of conservation effectiveness.

Causal attribution in explanations of near-crash events behind the wheel, and its relationship to comparative judgments

INTRODUCTION

The development of skills essential for avoiding crashes depends, in particular, on how drivers explain the causes of dangerous driving behaviors that resulted in a near crash. Here, we analyze causes attributed to such behaviors by car drivers in a self-report study. We explore the relationships between the dimensions of causal attribution, attribution of responsibility for the near crash, and drivers' comparative judgments.

METHOD

For approximately two months, drivers used logbooks to document the near crashes that occurred during their trips. The causes attributed in those reports to driving behaviors resulting in near crashes were then coded by two judges on the basis of several causal dimensions. Drivers also estimated their own and an average driver's skill levels, and their risk of being involved, as a driver, in a crash.

RESULTS

We distinguished main types of causes of the near crashes reported. Drivers had a tendency to more often attribute external causes to their own behaviors resulting in near crashes than to those of others. The probability of attributing a controllable cause increased with overestimation of one's own skills and decreased with underestimation of one's own risk in comparison to other drivers. The probability of attributing a stable cause increased with underestimation of one's own risk.

CONCLUSIONS

When they explained their own behaviors resulting in near crashes, drivers mentioned different causes than when they explained those of others. Overestimation of one's own skills as compared to other drivers could be beneficial for developing crash-avoiding skills, insofar as it seems to foster attribution of controllable causes. By contrast, underestimation of one's own risk could have the opposite effect.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Vulnerability to road risks should be stressed in driver's training and risk communication campaigns. However, self-confidence with respect to one's skills should not always be targeted as a safety problem.

On Slipping When You Thought You Had Put Your Best Foot Forward: Self-Promotion, Self-Destruction, and Entitlements

The article comprises three studies that investigated the efficiency of an impression management tactic known as an entitlement. Partici pants read a brief scenario describing the work of a fictitious research team in all three studies. Study 1 manipulated whether the entitlement was verified by a third party; Study 2 manipulated whether consensus regarding the direction the research team had taken would affect the entitlement's efficacy, and Study 3 manipu lated whether a self-entitlement and an other-entitlement would be differentially effective. Results showed that the entitlement could increase and decrease ratings of the entitler; these findings were discussed in terms of their effect on perceptions of scenario selection, promotion, and organizational politics.

Trait Importance and Modifiability as Factors Influencing Self-Assessment and Self-Enhancement Motives

People's search for information about the self is governed by motives of self-enhancement (seeking feedback to the extent that it will be favorable) and self-assessment (seeking accurate feed-back regardless of its favorability). Which motive predominates as an ability under consideration becomes more important? An experiment suggested that both motives are evoked, depending on whether people believe the ability reflects a stable or malleable aspect of personality. When an ability was described as stable, subjects displayed a self-enhancing pattern, showing greater enthusiasm for feedback after success than after failure on an initial test for the trait, but only when the ability was deemed important. In contrast, when the ability was described as malleable, subjects followed a self-assessment pattern, being more solicitous of feedback when the trait was described as important as opposed to inconsequential, regardless of initial success or failure.

Expected Effect Sizes

Estimates of the average effect size of research cited in socialpsychology textbooks were obtained. The estimates were (a) interpreted in relation to the effect sizes attributed by Cohen (1977) to the behavioral sciences and (b) extrapolated to suggest effect sizes that social psychologists might expect when they do not have more specific information about particular research areas.

"Self-Serving" Attributions to Valenced Causal Factors

Previous field studies of self-attributions have used correlational methodologies. Consequently, one cannot be sure that the performance outcomes themselves produced the divergent attributions typically found. To address this problem, a field experiment was performed in which ski racers were randomly assigned to manipulated outcomes and then made attributions for these outcomes. A second problem with previous research concerns the wording of items assessing attributions. The wording itself might sometimes produce divergent attributions in the absence of any self-serving motivations. To address this issue, subjects made attributions to positively and negatively valenced factors. Although divergent attributions were found, they do not appear to be self-serving. Although participants attributed success more than failure to internal, facilitating factors, they also attributed failure more than success to internal, debilitating factors. These results support the information-processing, rather than the motivational, explanation for self-attributions.

Teacher Attributions of Student Performance

Teacher attributions for elementary school students' successful and unsuccessful performances in real classrooms were assessed during three different times of the school year. Results suggest that practicing teachers' explanations of their own students' performances follow patterns consistent with earlier research on attribution processes.

Attributions of the Test-Anxious Student

In the present study, an attributional analysis of cognitions associated with the test-anxiety response is reported Late in the semester, 433 undergraduates in introductory level courses (who had scored high, moderate, or low on a test-anxiety inventory) completed a questionnaire that required (l) a self-assessment of success or failure in the course, (2) open-ended attributions about the causes of that success or failure, and (3) that subjects then rate their open-ended responses on several relevant dimensions. A content analysis of students' written accounts suggested that unsuccessful, highly test-anxious students blamed their character (as opposed to their behavior or the environment) for their failure. Consistent with earlier work, there also emerged a general tendency for successful students to emphasize internal over external attributions, while failing students showed an opposite pattern.

'It Hurts a Hell of a Lot...'

This article reports on a qualitative investigation of the effects of indirect aggression from peers (e.g. spreading false stories, exclusion from the group) on teenage girls. Focus groups, pair and individual interviews were conducted with teenage girls and their key teachers to explore the effects of indirect aggression on girls. The perceived characteristics of typical victims of indirect aggression also emerged from the study. The girls initially respond to indirect aggression with confusion and may deny suffering any ill-effects. However, as is the case with other forms of victimization, girls certainly experience a range of negative psychological effects including anxiety, loss of selfesteem and depression. This pain leads to a desire to escape through leaving the group or the school and even to thoughts of suicide. The girls fear that the harassment from peers may not end and witnesses or bystanders do not intervene for fear of what may happen to them. The pain of indirect aggression may be compounded by irrational self-talk by the girls. Some girls react to indirect aggression by retaliating against their aggressors and often conflict is resolved by girls who employ one-to-one strategies that avoid the power of the group. Some victims of indirect aggression are reported to bring the wrath of peers upon themselves through their actions in provoking others. However, the tendency to blame the victim may be a way of alleviating guilt on behalf of the perpetrators of aggression. Victims of indirect aggression may be particularly vulnerable if they are new or have few friends or lack assertiveness. An understanding of the painful effects of indirect aggression on girls is an important prelude to designing interventions to assist girls in their peer relationships.

Effect of Motivational Goals on the Causal Realism of Counterfactual Thoughts

Counterfactual thinking refers to mental comparisons of reality with imagined alternatives of it. The "functional view" of counterfactual thinking suggests that upward counterfactuals (which improve on reality) serve a preparative function and downward counterfactuals (which worsen reality) serve an affective function. This view presumes that people generate counterfactuals that focus on cause(s) that have actually produced the negative outcomes. The two experiments reported here demonstrate that people spontaneously manipulate the causal content of their counterfactuals, depending on their motivational goals. Specifically, it was found that when people aim to feel better about a poor decision they generate less realistic (upward) counterfactuals, experience less negative affect and tend to attribute the outcome to less controllable causes than when they aim to learn from their experience. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The association between seeing retail displays of tobacco and tobacco smoking and purchase: findings from a diary-style survey

AIMS

To assess the impact of retail displays of tobacco on tobacco smoking and purchase by smokers and attempting quitters.

DESIGN

Population-based diary style survey.

SETTING

NSW, Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 998 smokers and 111 attempting quitters.

MEASUREMENTS

Demographic measures and 4-hourly records over 4 days: number of cigarettes smoked and bought; exposure to cigarette smoking by friends/family or other smokers; and exposure to retail displays of tobacco.

FINDINGS

Subjects reported seeing cigarettes for sale in more than 40% of the time-periods when they were outside their home. After allowing for factors which are known to increase smoking, people who saw cigarettes for sale were more likely to smoke, and smoked more cigarettes, even if they did not buy cigarettes in the same time-period. There was marginally significant evidence that people exposed to retail displays of tobacco in one time-period were more likely to buy in the following time-period.

CONCLUSIONS

In an environment which permits point-of-sale displays, smokers were found to see tobacco displays in more than 40% of the 4-hour periods that they were outside the home. Exposure to such tobacco displays was associated with a higher probability of smoking, and with higher levels of smoking, even when subjects did not purchase cigarettes.

Meta-analysis of Comparative Therapy Outcome Research: a Critical Appraisal

Meta-analysis is a systematic and quantitative approach to reviewing empirical literature. Its claimed benefits of superior objectivity and dependability arise from its adoption of the methodological principles and methods of primary empirical research. This paper offers a critical appraisal of these claims, with special reference to the application of meta-analysis to the therapy outcome literature. Features examined include the numerical combination of results obtained in independent studies; search procedures and inclusion criteria; and the coding of objective and qualitative features of the source studies, which are then used to study the correlates of outcome via disaggregation and multiple regression analysis. The major criticisms reviewed include allegations of overgeneralization, indiscriminate inclusion of low quality data, and idiosyncratic and unacceptable conclusions. It is concluded that the continued application and refinement of meta-analysis in the field of therapy outcomes has an important contribution to make, although not to the exclusion of other methods of integrating data. It is predicted that methods and principles currently associated with meta-analysis will increasingly find a place in all reviews of extensive tracts of empirical literature.

East—West Differences in Attributions for Company Performance

Prior cross-cultural studies indicate that the self-serving attributional bias is more prevalent in Western cultures than in Eastern cultures. There is, however, a dearth of research looking into cross-cultural differences in attributional patterns that is based on publicly available archival data. This study tries to fill that lacuna. It reports the results based on a content analysis of corporate annual reports from U.S. and Japanese companies. The results reported in this study demonstrate that cross-cultural differences found in experimental settings are not necessarily observed in naturalistic settings. Specifically, this study reveals that both U.S. as well as Japanese companies explain company results in a self-serving fashion. Overall, the results support the notion that the nature of the relationship affects the extent to which cross-cultural differences in attributional patterns emerge.

Is There a Universal Positivity Bias in Attributions? A Meta-Analytic Review of Individual, Developmental, and Cultural Differences in the Self-Serving Attributional Bias

Researchers have suggested the presence of a self-serving attributional bias, with people making more internal, stable, and global attributions for positive events than for negative events. This study examined the magnitude, ubiquity, and adaptiveness of this bias. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 266 studies, yielding 503 independent effect sizes. The average d was 0.96, indicating a large bias. The bias was present in nearly all samples. There were significant age differences, with children and older adults displaying the largest biases. Asian samples displayed significantly smaller biases (d = 0.30) than U.S. (d = 1.05) or Western (d = 0.70) samples. Psychopathology was associated with a significantly attenuated bias (d = 0.48) compared with samples without psychopathology (d = 1.28) and community samples (d = 1.08). The bias was smallest for samples with depression (0.21), anxiety (0.46), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (0.55). Findings confirm that the self-serving attributional bias is pervasive in the general population but demonstrates significant variability across age, culture, and psychopathology.

One Hundred Years of Social Psychology Quantitatively Described

This article compiles results from a century of social psychological research, more than 25,000 studies of 8 million people. A large number of social psychological conclusions are listed alongside meta-analytic information about the magnitude and variability of the corresponding effects. References to 322 meta-analyses of social psychological phenomena are presented, as well as statistical effect-size summaries. Analyses reveal that social psychological effects typically yield a value of r equal to.21 and that, in the typical research literature, effects vary from study to study in ways that produce a standard deviation in r of.15. Uses, limitations, and implications of this large-scale compilation are noted.

The role of decision influence and team performance in member self-efficacy, withdrawal, satisfaction with the leader, and willingness to return

This study examines team performance as a moderator of the relationship between decision influence and outcomes relevant to team effectiveness in hierarchical teams with distributed ex pertise. In this type of team staff members have unique roles and make recommendations to the team leader, who ultimately makes the team's final decisions. It is suggested that the positive rela tionship between decision influence and favorable outcomes (e.g., satisfaction) consistently described in the literature is dependent on team performance in this type of team. Specifically, team effec tiveness outcomes are proposed to be consistently more favorable in higher performing than in lower performing teams. Decision influence is proposed to relate positively to member satisfaction with the leader, willingness to return, and self-efficacy and to relate negatively to withdrawal in higher performing teams. The opposite pattern of relationships is expected in lower performing teams. A laboratory study was conducted with 228 undergradu ates performing a computer task as subordinates in 76 four-person teams with a confederate leader. The results generally support the hypotheses and illustrate a dilemma for leaders attempting to manage team effectiveness.

Self-Threat Magnifies the Self-Serving Bias: A Meta-Analytic Integration

Experiments testing the self-serving bias (SSB; taking credit for personal success but blaming external factors for personal failure) have used a multitude of moderators (i.e., role, task importance, outcome expectancies, self-esteem, achievement motivation, self-focused attention, task choice, perceived task difficulty, interpersonal orientation, status, affect, locus of control, gender, and task type). The present meta-analytic review established the viability and pervasiveness of the SSB and, more important, organized the 14 moderators just listed under the common theoretical umbrella of self-threat. According to the self-threat model, the high self-threat level of each moderator is associated with a larger display of the SSB than the low self-threat level. The model was supported: Self-threat magnifies the SSB.