Self-Serving Bias
Self-serving Bias
is the tendency people have to process information in ways that advance their own self-interest or support their pre-existing views.
Just think of the phenomenon of the social media bubble.
They tend to think highly of themselves, focusing on strengths and achievements, and overlooking weakness and failures.
People also create self-serving definitions of competence when the characteristics or abilities being assessed are vague, and the standards of comparison are missing or subjective. A very creative person could believe that creativity is the most important skill in innovation competence , so this person assesses herself as highly innovative. The clear definition of innovation competence in SINCOE and the SINC@-tool should mitigate this kind of self-serving bias.
How to overcome self-serving bias
- Awareness:
Bringing something from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind is the first step to mitigating the bias. Start to notice yourself - Slow down your thinking:
Recognizing that biases grow out of our mind’s tendency to think quickly and make fast judgments and decisions, it is important to try to slow down your thinking – taking all relevant factors into consideration and trying to avoid making premature decisions or statements. - Learn how to be better at taking criticism:
The self-serving bias is closely related to our self-esteem. It helps to elevate our self-worth, but it makes self-improvement difficult because we are less likely to learn from our mistakes and accept any negative feedback.