Self-Serving Bias 

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    Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to perceive oneself favorably.     

    Self-Serving Bias: our tendency to take credit for success (self-enhancing bias) & deny any 
responsibility for failure (self-protective bias).     

    Self-serving bias (the norm) helps to protect our ego. It also enables us to confirm that we are 
meeting our goals. It's adaptive!      

    When self-serving bias diminishes responsibility for one’s self & places responsibility for failure 
externally, it's maladaptive!     

    We tend to be less self-serving if other needs interrupt, for example if we are subject to public 
scrutiny.

     * False Consensus Effect: The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions & 
one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.    

     * False Uniqueness Effect: The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities & 
one's desirable or successful behaviors.
  
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                 Social Psychology
                      Robert C. Gates