Facilitation of ego-biased attributions by means of self-serving observer feedback

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology Vol. 35; no. 10; pp. 734 - 741
• Main Authors: Sicoly, Fiore, Ross, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, D.C American Psychological Association 01-10-1977
• Subjects: Attribution; Ego; Feedback; Human; Self-Esteem; Social Reinforcement
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.35.10.734

Demonstrated self-enhancing and self-protective biases that cannot be readily interpreted in nonmotivational terms. 70 female Ss were informed that they had either succeeded or failed on a social sensitivity task. They were then required to report the degree of personal responsibility that they were willing to accept for their performance. Subsequently, Ss were asked to assess the accuracy of judgments made by a confederate who assigned them either more or less responsibility than Ss themselves had previously accepted. Ss who were assigned increased responsibility for success or decreased responsibility for failure allotted inflated accuracy ratings to the confederate. Presumably, Ss were more receptive to this feedback because it enabled them to enhance or protect their self-esteem. (16 ref)