Individuals tend to view themselves favorably, crediting themselves for successes more than failures.īeing the observer, individuals often assign the cause of others’ behavior to their inherent personal characteristics. Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison: AspectĪ cognitive bias causes people to attribute their actions to external circumstances while attributing other people’s behaviors to their internal characteristics.Ī cognitive bias is where individuals attribute positive outcomes to their skills and abilities (internal factors) and negative outcomes to external factors, like luck or the difficulty of a task.įrom the acting perspective, individuals attribute their behaviors largely to situational factors. Self-serving bias is focused on an individual’s behavior, whereas actor-observer bias is focused on both individual and others’ behavior. Self-serving bias results from the outcomes – be it success or failure. In contrast, as I’ve discussed, actor-observer bias is the psychological phenomenon wherein a person tends to ascribe their actions to situational factors and other people’s actions to personality traits. This bias is apparent in how people describe and explain the behavior and attitudes of others and themselves.įor example, someone applying for a job may attribute their successes to their abilities and characteristics (e.g., “I got the job because I’m really good”) but attribute their failures to situational circumstances (e.g., “I didn’t get the job because there were some qualified applicants”). In other words, self-serving bias is the tendency to see oneself as less causally responsible for adverse outcomes and more causally responsible for positive results. They take credit for their triumphs but blame outside forces for failures. What Is the Difference Between Actor-Observer Bias and Self-Serving Bias?Ī self-serving bias is a cognitive bias wherein a person accounts for their successes by overestimating their abilities and rewards and explaining their failures as external to themselves. The student may think that the other person didn’t put enough effort into the exam, did not study enough, or is stupid. However, when evaluating someone else who received a bad grade, the student will often see their behavior entirely under their control. When considering giving themselves a bad grade, they will usually justify it based on external factors – for example, I had a hard time with this class, or I’ve been going through a rough time at home. Still, the person seems adamant about the concept’s perceived flaws this is likely a case of actor-observer bias.Īnother way to illustrate this is to consider a student who receives a bad grade. If you ever find yourself at a meeting where someone doesn’t agree with an idea, their behavior can’t be attributed to any (obvious) situational factor. As observers, we only have access to observable behaviors, which we often attribute to a person’s stable characteristics or personality traits Examples of Actor-Observer Bias As actors, we comprehensively understand our circumstances and the various external factors influencing our behavior. That said, this difference in attribution results from our uniquely different perspectives as actors and observers. In contrast, observers can see the situation in which actors are placed. One reason is that actors will have a more challenging time seeing themselves act than observers. Some explanations have argued that the actor-observer bias is a product of human perception. They are both right, but their bias prevents them from seeing their contribution to the problem. Person B also thinks he’s right and that the conflict is due to something person A has done wrong. Person A thinks he’s right and that the conflict is due to something person B has done wrong. Let’s understand this by taking an example. Actor-observer bias is also known as attitude–behavior gap or simply, “difference between doing and saying. The bias derives from the fundamental attribution error, which is our inability to distinguish situational factors likely contributing to our engagement in the same behavior. The actor-observer bias is our tendency to see other’s actions as being more under their control than our own or others’ actions caused by their situation.
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