Self serving bias is a kind of defend mechanism of human mind that encourage a person to relate the positive outcome to himself and negative outcome to external factors. People hardly like to be wasteful and tend to deny losses when they invest money, time, or labor. So, they have the tendency to relate the unwanted results to other persons, things or situations. People should try to think unbiasedly to find their own faults and limitations behind the negative outcomes. Otherwise, self serving biases might lead them to the damage of their future financial, fame, and health consequences. Let's discuss the causes and effects of self serving bias on our life cand career.
What is Self Serving Bias?
Self serving bias is the tendency to accredit success to one's own capabilities and efforts. It is one’s cognitive or perceptual process cherished in mind and heart that is tough to forget. In this state people always think themselves above the average that mentally hunt their career and keep them far from greater success.
Self serving bias first became a famous fact by the end of the 1960s. When this research is going on, Fritz Heider who is an Austrian psychologist first observes it in people.
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Today, self-serving bias is found in several different capacities. It is common in the workplace, interpersonal relationships, sports and athletic performance, consumer decisions, and computer technology. Modern research shows that it focuses on physiological manipulations. Moreover, the biological mechanism also contributes to the self serving bias.
Why does self serving bias happen?
Self serving bias is a common issue and it is described as a human non cognitive process that is twisted. Researchers have identified the following reasons why self- bias occurs so often among individuals.
Self-Esteem
Self serving bias is closely related to either maintaining or enhancing our own self-esteem. Self-bias helps to improve and preserve our own self-esteem by altering our perception of ourselves and of our reality.
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Self-Presentation
Self-presentation helps individuals to maintain their self-esteem, as they are affected by others’ perceptions of themselves. Through self-presentation, an individual actively represents favorable impressions of themselves to others.
Natural Optimism
Humans are naturally optimistic and this is another important reason that this cognitive bias is really related. It is very natural if others make mistakes, we blame the individual who makes the error, but when we make mistakes ourselves, we blame situations for our failures which means we are naturally optimistic about ourselves.
We tend to seek out patterns
Self serving bias happens because of the brain's natural propensity to look for patterns and associations in the world.
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We like to take shortcuts
Like other cognitive biases, self serving bias is a result of the brain's tendency to try to simplify the world.
Age & Culture
Researchers have shown that self serving bias is most usual among young children and older adults. Self-bias are controlled by experiences. However, these attitudes may not happen due to direct personal experience. Cultural issues, media portrayals, and upbringing can help to the implicit associations that people form about the members of other social groups.
How can it Damage Your Career and Potentials?
Self serving bias can have long-term negative impacts on our professional lives. Check below some warning signs.
Keeping you away from feedback
Most people take feedback as criticism and most of us don’t like that, so we avoid it. But we need to remember that feedback is the most important way to avoid self serving bias traps. Our egotism can be corrected if we hold ourselves accountable to seek information from others on how we are doing.
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Make you content with how things are
Self-approval is the by-product of too much self serving bias. Your self-satisfaction keeps you away from taking additional training, spending more time on projects, taking that challenging new position, or developing a new skill. In a word, self serving bias works against pushing ourselves.
Show to You externalize problems instead of internalizing them
You have to work on many problems. But, your self serving bias tells you someone or something else is the reason for this problem, not you. So, you never correct yourself.
Hinder Your creativity
Your self serving bias make you think that you are smart when you need to solve any problem. So, you try to solve the problem in one or two ways. But you can't be creative.
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How to avoid it: Advance Your Career by Avoiding Self Serving Bias
Self serving bias is frequent and familiar but there are many ways to avoid it and prevent it from impairing our day-to-day decisions. Just be patient as with most behavioral changes, it’s going to take time.
See people as individuals
Make sure you spend time considering people on a more personal, individual level.
Contact people who are not like you
We generally socialize with people like us. Just break that pattern by interacting with people outside your in-group.
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Be specific in your intent
Focus on your intent. Be specific to your demands and intentions.
Notice positive examples
Focusing your attention on the positive characteristics and actions of people who are outside your in-group, you can avoid self serving bias.
Adjust your perspective
Don’t always see everything from your perspective. Rather try to see things from another person's point of view.
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Increase your exposure
Try to spend more time with people of different racial backgrounds so that you can learn about their culture.
Practice mindfulness
Meditation, yoga, or focused breathing contribute a lot to increase mindfulness and become more aware of thoughts and actions.
Change the way you do things
Don’t always do it in your own way. Sometimes people need to think out of the box to do something better.
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Heighten your awareness
If you become aware of something once, you can’t be unaware ever again. So, boost up your awareness.
Take care of yourself
Don’t forget to take care of yourself. We are less effective at processing new information and rely more on unconscious patterns if we are tired or stressed.
Bottom Line
We hope our discussion would help you to understand how self serving bias can destroy career, creativity, perseverance, and above all our potential. We need to be aware of self serving bias right now. So, it is high time to take steps to minimize our problems and to boost up our personality, responsibility, and prospects.