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Self-serving bias 1:00
A 60-second explainer of Self-serving bias, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Self-serving bias demo
What this video covers
Self-serving bias is our habit of taking credit for successes and blaming something external for failures. When things go well it's down to our skill and effort; when they go badly it's bad luck, other people or the circumstances - a tidy accounting that protects our self-esteem but distorts what we learn.
Notice the pattern in your own answers: the win was your doing, the loss was the world's fault. That asymmetry is self-serving bias. It feels fair from the inside, but it means you learn the wrong lesson from both outcomes - over-crediting yourself when things work and missing your part when they don't. Honest post-mortems fight it by asking the uncomfortable other half each time.