Examples Of Self Serving Bias

A Self Serving Bias is any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self esteem. According to Judge & Robbins, perception is defined as a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. This is an individual, subjective process and it is influenced by numerous factors including attitude, personal values and expectation and it is impossible to avoid bias. These can be factors in the perceiver, situation or the target. Attribution theory also plays a role in how we perceive the world around us. Attribution theory helps to give reason as to why we judge people differently and to whether their behaviour was internally or externally

People tend to screen out information that makes them uncomfortable or that contradicts their beliefs (Fundamentals of Management, Ricky Griffin p.259). This helps to explain why you tend to notice people who have a similar phone to you. Suppose if a candidate for promotion was punctual, well presented and well liked by upper management. He is seen by one of his managers taking numerous coffee breaks throughout the day, his managers selective perception may very well cause these incidents to be overlooked as he already has other good characteristics in his managers eye. This could also tend to happen if someone is seen as a poor performer in the workplace. He or she may have done excellent work on their companies latest project but their tardiness could cause their effort to be

People ignore other relevant characteristics of a person as their judgement of them is skewed by their initial good judgement. When we meet a person for the first time we make a conclusion about them and a judgement on what kind of person they are. A single positive trait can affect how we perceive them. This is when a single positive trait spills onto other elements of a persons character. In two different interviews staged with the same person, that person was warm and friendly in one but in the other he was cold and distant(The Halo Effect: Evidence for Unconscious Alteration of Judgements, R.E Nisbett, T.D Wilson, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977, Vol 35, No 4, p.250. http://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/the_halo_effect-_evidence_for_unconscious_alteration_of_judgments.pdf ). Those who saw the warm interviewer rated him as appealing whereas those who saw the cold interview found him to be irritating. This is the halo effect in action. The halo effect can also be applied to celebrities endorsing products. A celebrities good traits can be used to make the product they are endorsing seem more appealing. The rusty halo effect can also be applied to products. After the infamous handball from Thierry Henry, Gillette dropped him from their product endorsement, as he was seen to be a cheater. This