Page 194 - The Social Animal

176 The Social Animal

the issue. This is yet another example of how our beliefs and expec-
tations can create social reality.
The tendency toward egocentric thought occurs in subtle ways
that frequently include our memory for past events and information.
One very common finding is that people have superior memory for
information descriptive of the self. 101 Moreover, when working in
groups, individuals tend to focus on and recall their own perform-
ance at the expense of retaining information about the performance
of others. In addition, when a person plays an active role in generat-
ing information, that information is better recalled than when it was
passively received. Finally, studies repeatedly show superior memory
for information that is related to the self; that is, when people think
about how a term or an object applies to themselves, they remember
it better than when the same term or object applies to others. The
role of egocentric thought in memory does have practical implica-
tions for the student: One of the best ways to recall material from
this book is to relate it to your personal experiences—to think how
it applies to you. This will help you do better on the next test.

The Self-Serving Bias The self-serving bias refers to a ten-
dency for individuals to make dispositional attributions for their suc-
cesses and situational attributions for their failures. For example, in
a basketball game, if Linda sinks a difficult shot, chances are she will
attribute it to her great eye and leaping ability. On the other hand, if
she misses, she might claim that she was fouled or that there was a
soft spot in the floor that led to a mistiming of her jump. Automo-
bile driving provides many opportunities for motorists to engage in
the self-serving bias. For example, the following are actual written re-
ports given by drivers involved in automobile accidents. 102 As can be
seen, the self-serving bias is much in evidence.

The telephone pole was approaching fast; I attempted to
swerve out of its way, when it struck the front of my car.
An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and
vanished.
My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.
As I reached an intersection, a hedge sprang up, obscuring my
vision. I did not see the other car.
A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.