What to Blame? Self-Serving Attribution Bias with Multi-Dimensional Uncertainty

Alexander Coutts, Leonie Gerhards and Zahra Murad

The Economic Journal, 2024, vol. 134, issue 661, 1835-1874

Abstract: People often receive feedback influenced by external factors, yet little is known about how this affects self-serving biases. Our theoretical model explores how multi-dimensional uncertainty allows additional degrees of freedom for self-serving bias. In our primary experiment, feedback combining an individual’s ability and a teammate’s ability leads to biased belief updating. However, in a follow-up experiment with a random fundamental replacing the teammate, unbiased updating occurs. A validation experiment shows that belief distortion is greater when outcomes originate from human actions. Overall, our experiments highlight how multi-dimensional environments can enable self-serving biases.

Date: 2024
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