Ego bias enhances self-confidence and self-esteem, but can lead to a tendency to attribute success to personal factors and failure to external factors. It can also lead to systemic biases and self-handicapping. Being aware of these processes can help individuals evaluate their performance critically and learn from failures.
An ego bias is a cognitive bias that tends to enhance an individual’s ego and self-confidence, through a variety of processes. Many people demonstrate this bias in one way or another, as most people want to be successful, strong individuals. Being aware of the processes behind it can help a person evaluate their performance and progress more critically and will enable the person to use things like failures as learning experiences.
The classic example of selfish bias is the tendency for people to attribute success to their own personality and failure to external factors. In this way, people take credit for having done well, which increases their self-esteem, and hold themselves responsible for failures. For example, if a person passes the driving test on the first try, she might say that this is because she studied hard and is a good driver. If you fail the test, however, you could blame the examiner, the car or the weather, rather than admitting that you have not demonstrated safe and effective driving skills.
Another aspect of this bias is the tendency to interpret unclear information favorably. For example, if a course instructor says that “only two people got A’s in the final,” a student may assume that one of those people was himself. Many people also display systemic biases; systemic bias involves a personal belief that people perform better in areas important to their self-esteem. For example, someone who wants to be a doctor might believe that their biology skills are better than the average person’s.
The tendency to emphasize success and minimize failure can be very dangerous. By focusing only on success, people cannot learn from their failures. In the driving test example above, for example, the student might admit that they failed due to imperfect driving skills. This admission would allow her to ask the examiner for suggestions in areas that need improvement, so she could study those weaknesses and pass the test on the second try.
Selfish bias can also lead to a situation called self-handicap. Taking the driving test example a step further, if someone is routinely told they are likely to fail the first time, the student may study and practice less, so that situational factors such as lack of practice can be blamed for its failure. When someone engages in self-handicaping, they may seek out safe situations where success is guaranteed, rather than pushing to do better and risking failure on occasion.
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