Self-Serving Bias in AP Psychology

Definition

Self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute positive events to one's own character but attribute negative events to external factors. It's a common type of cognitive bias that has been extensively studied in social psychology.

Related terms

Fundamental Attribution Error:

The tendency for people to place an undue emphasis on internal characteristics (personality) to explain someone else's behavior in a given situation rather than considering the situation's external factors.

Defensive Attribution: A psychological term referring to how people distance themselves from individuals who have experienced misfortune or crime, based on fears and insecurities about their own safety.

Actor-Observer Bias:

This refers to our tendency to attribute our own actions to external causes while attributing other people’s behaviors to their internal characteristics.