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MENTAL MODEL · M5856

Self-serving Bias

Self-serving Bias
BehaviorHigh supportSocial Psychology
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-28

CORE DEFINITION

People tend to attribute success to their own abilities and failure to external factors. For example, "I got promoted because of my hard work, he got promoted because of luck."

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

A self-aggrandizing filter. It prevents teams from objectively evaluating the causes of failure and hinders learning. In organizations, it is important to encourage a culture of "first look at your own problems" and establish a "failure review" mechanism to counteract self-serving bias.

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This is a motivational self-enhancing attribution: individuals, to maintain a positive self-image, attribute positive outcomes to internal stable traits and negative outcomes to external incidental factors. In organizational settings, it systematically hinders learning from failure because responsibility can always be externalized.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

  • link
    zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E5%88%A9%E6%80%A7%E5%81%8F%E5%B7%AEZH · Explicit
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