Watch

Self-serving bias 1:00

A 60-second explainer of Self-serving bias, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.

The Self-serving bias explainer. Prefer to do it yourself? Try the interactive demo.

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.

More UX term videos

All UX term videos