Self-Serving Bias as a Cognitive Distortion
Faulty thinking comes in a variety of forms. Self-serving bias is one of those forms. This form of faulty thinking affects the way someone functions both in personal situations and in society as a whole.
Self-serving bias is one of several identified cognitive distortions. Understanding cognitive distortions and understanding self-serving bias is the beginning of changing the behaviors.
Once you understand what each of those is, cognitive behavioral therapy might make sense.
Defining Cognitive Distortions
Inherently negative thoughts that are based on false beliefs are called cognitive distortions. Everyone experiences a negative thought pattern on occasion. When those thought patterns become routine, they have the potential to become harmful to a person’s overall mental health.
Several harmful thought patterns qualify as cognitive distortions. Self-serving bias is one of those thought patterns. Many people experience this kind of cognitive distortion, but not all of them remain hampered by the thinking.
What does self-serving bias look like up close?
Defining Self-Serving Bias
Do you know someone who always takes the credit when good things happen, but something negative is never their fault? They will blame other people, animals, acts of nature, anything but themselves for their mistakes or shortcomings. This is called self-serving bias.
Many people exhibit this kind of behavior in their teen years or during their early college days. Forgetting a project or doing poorly on a test often gets blamed on the teacher or a study partner. However, a good grade means they were successful on their own.
Typically, as people age and mature, this bias changes. For some, though, it doesn’t. Those people are the ones who may need assistance retraining their thought processes to eliminate this faulty thinking pattern.
Self-serving bias hampers the way people learn from mistakes and cope with adversity. When they view all mistakes as someone else’s responsibility, they are likely to repeat the negative patterns of behavior. This bias can be harmful to interpersonal relationships as well as societal conduct.
As with other cognitive distortions, self-serving bias affects multiple aspects of life. Consistent negative thought patterns affect self-concept as well as the way people interact with others. This particular distortion affects how people view mistakes and whether they actually learn from them.
Defining Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Cognitive behavior therapy is a therapy technique that uses goal-oriented therapy to recognize the presence of cognitive distortions. After the distortions are identified, thoughts are reframed and reconstructed. The plan is to correct negative thought patterns and create healthier ones.
Because this kind of therapy is goal-oriented, it takes a specified amount of time to implement. Don’t expect instantaneous results. Negative thought patterns develop over time, and the positive or more rational ones will take time to develop as well.
Final Thoughts
Self-serving bias is relatively common. Many people have the habit of blaming failures on anything other than themselves. If these patterns continue, there could be issues with personal relationships and with functioning in society. Cognitive behavior therapy can be used to help retrain these thought patterns.