Self-serving bias: a common cognitive prejudice.

Part: 1

A human perceptual process that is distorted.

Being aware of the self-serving bias and its potential impact on our lives is essential because it can change how we ‘learn from our mistakes’ and it can affect our ‘decision-making process’.

Note: It is ‘one’ of the many cognitive biases of the human brain.

Self-serving bias in simple words, is a tendency of mind to take credit for the positive outcomes and blame the external and situational factors for negative ones rather than the personal reasons.

For example:

When a student get good marks she tells that happened because she worked hard and when she failed exam she tells that happened because the teacher don't like her or the paper was out of syllabus.

Or,

Do you remember a situation where you took credit for victories and pointed fingers when things went south?

This is common amongst so many of us.

As our initial reaction is to praise ourselves when we achieve success and attribute it to our abilities but blame external factors for failures.

This seemingly harmless habit can have significant implications on our life as we age.

By this, we spare ourselves of any real opportunity for criticism.

The self-serving bias skews our perception of ourselves and of our reality, in order to improve and preserve our own ‘self-esteem’ in the process.

The fact is that humans are ‘inherently optimistic’ and negative outcomes tend to surprise them.

So when these outcomes do occur, we are more likely to attribute these results to external factors as opposed to internal ones.

It is the core reason that makes this kind of bias thrive in us from the very young age.

Due to ‘natural optimism’, we blame the individual who makes the error but when we make mistakes ourselves, we blame circumstances for our failures.

When we rely on this bias to help elevate our sense of self-worth, it makes self-improvement difficult because we are less likely to learn from our mistakes and accept any negative feedback.

When an individual learns about common cognitive biases, they can then begin to notice them and provide themselves an opportunity to ‘self-correct’.

Our ability to be “self-compassionate”-is a way to help mitigate self-serving bias.

That is to allow yourself to be imperfect and still treat yourself with unconditional kindness when you fall short of your own expectations

Self-compassion is an individual’s ability to recognise distress and commit to alleviating that distress.

Becoming ‘self-compassionate’ will help you in reducing ‘defensiveness’ and in taking criticism positively when looking to self-improve.

Accept criticisms as an opportunity for improvement rather than an attack.

Perceive failures as a source of learning and not guilt.

To overcome :

Step 1: Aware yourself about the facts related to self-serving bias.

Step 2: Value failure and take accountability.

Step 3: Reduce self-criticism.

Step 4: Find ways to give others credit.

Also, often when a person is depressed or has low self-esteem, this kind of bias may exist in a ‘reversed’ form.

Bottom line:

Be aware that you probably have a tendency towards the self-serving bias.

Do not let the self serving bias be a reason for arrogance, narcissism or an excuse to hide all your flaws.

Practice to see through your soul and you will become as self-aware as an enlightened soul over the years.

If you find yourself exhibiting it, refer back to this post and straighten yourself out!

The motive of this series (of bringing out common cognitive errors- we unknowingly practice in everyday life) is to draw your attention to your own patterns of thinking so you can detect such behavioral defects and try to entirely eliminate them.

They may be incredibly common but they can't be stated as something normal or healthy to continue with, any more!

[ If you're here, thanks for reading :) Stay tuned for more upcoming parts. ]

Subscribe here:

Share with others: