Self-serving bias

Self-serving bias occurs when people are more likely to claim responsibility for successes than failures.

For instance, a student who gets a good grade on an exam might say, "I got an A!" while a student who does poorly on an exam might say, "He [the teacher] gave me an F!"

Dale Miller and Micheal Ross first suggested this attributional bias.

• Miller, D. T., & Ross, M. (1975). Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction? Psychological Bulletin, 82, 213-225.

See also: wishful thinking, list of cognitive biases