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Self-Esteem and Impression Management Explanations for Self-Serving Biases.

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People often claim credit for successes and blame others for failures, a phenomenon known as self-serving bias. This study found self-esteem, not impression management, better explains this attributional bias in American female students.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Self-serving attributions, where individuals claim credit for success and deny failure, are observed across diverse cultures.
  • Previous research indicates self-esteem and impression management processes may explain this bias.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mediating role of self-esteem and impression management in self-serving attributions.
  • To assess the validity of these theoretical explanations for the self-serving bias.

Main Methods:

  • American female students participated in a word association task with varying success/failure outcomes.
  • Attributions were assessed using a bogus lie-detector or paper-and-pencil scales.
  • Audience evaluation varied across low, medium, and high conditions.

Main Results:

  • Analysis of primary and ancillary measures generally supported self-esteem theory.
  • Findings suggest self-esteem plays a significant role in self-serving attributions.

Conclusions:

  • Self-esteem provides a stronger theoretical explanation for the self-serving bias than impression management.
  • The study highlights the influence of self-perception on attributions for success and failure.