The second concept that I found interesting is part of the subjective process of explaining our perceptions in ways that make sense to us: interpretation. I learned that people make two common errors when they explain why something happened or why someone acts a certain way. The error that I am going to talk about is the self-serving bias that means a bias toward ourselves and our interest. This concept is on page 75 in the Julia T. Wood's book. It explains how people are inclined to attribute their misconduct results to outside forces that they can’t help, and all the good they do to their personal qualities and efforts.
The way I understand it is that our perception is frequently distorted because of our tendency to avoid taking responsibility for our negative actions and to claim that our success is due to the personal control we exerted. The spheres of my life that first come to my mind when I think of that concept are school, work and competitions. It’s totally true that when I have a failing grade, a bad comment on my work or a bad result when I compete with other people I tend to think that it’s because of external factors and to abdicate responsibility. However, after careful consideration, I usually change my mind and be more realistic about my failures because I realize that I can improve myself by knowing what I’ve done bad.
The fact that the self-serving bias is applicable to my personal life is not the only reason why I chose to talk about that topic. In fact, it’s also because I can easily recognize one of my friends through that behavior. I think she is the perfect prototype of that kind of error. Every time she doesn’t succeed as good as her expectations, she explicitly tells us that it’s not her fault because she has done her best and so on. I feel she just can’t admit her responsibility when she fails. That happens particularly at school. I have seen her many times reproaching the teacher for her grades or for a tricky question. That often makes me laugh a little bit. However, I think she is acting this way because she doesn't want to get herself hurt by accepting her defeats.
This next video is also good example of self-serving bias. It shows a girl that credits herself for the success of her oral presentation instead of external factors such has the qualities and abilities of her partners. It’s a bias toward herself and her interests. I think it is very representative of the reality.
This video is so funny and so...true. Actually, I think I can even say which friends of ours you are thinking of in your example! Haha!
RépondreSupprimerI can totally remember some people acting exactly the same way. But at the meantime, I think it is kind of a natural defensive behaviour to negative things that happen to you. For example, let's say you got a very bad grade in your interpersonal communication exam. At first glance, you might put the blame on the teacher, on the fact you had two exams the same day or even on the girl sitting next to you who was breathing extremely loud! So, basically anything - any external fact is ‘evil’ enough to have you failed this test. I guess you tend to find a reason to what happened, because otherwise your self-esteem might get hurt. You might think you’re not as intelligent as the others because you didn’t do as good, and so on. Once the shock is behind you, you may begin to think rationally again. It is important to admit (at least to yourself) that it was your fault in some ways. Then, you can learn from your mistakes and go on. I realized I used to do that and to me, reflection is apparently the best way to avoid self-learning bias.
In addition, positive self-serving bias or when you attribute your wins to your efforts and qualities can be a good way to find and make the most of your inner strengths. But, as you were saying, it can make you blind from seeing the reality and overestimate your capacities, just like the girl in the video.
I totally agree that self-serving bias can be a natural behaviour to negative things. No one likes to fail and to admit that negative actions were beyond their control. The American society focuses on performance, competition and success. In a way or another, those ideas are part of our interpretation’s pattern. However, even if it’s not pleasant, we have to be realistic and open-minded when we construct our attributions. Like you said, that it’s the way we can avoid self-serving bias.
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