Self-serving Bias in the Age of the Heart

While researching a different subject, I came across some of Ziva Kunda’s work. She was an academic researcher who worked on social cognition and on self-serving bias before passing away at the young age of 49. 

Her findings are that self-serving bias is a cognitive process that is colored, or distorted, by the need to maintain and enhance one’s own self-esteem.  We credit ourselves for our successes on our own abilities, but blame outside factors for our failures. I got an A on the test because I’m smart, studied, and worked hard versus I failed the test because the teacher did a bad job, the test wasn’t on the materials, and it’s stupid anyway. Basically, if we are using a self-serving bias, we look inward to claim success and outward to assign blame. 

America is on the cusp of a new age: The Age of the Heart. Like every time we enter a new age (agricultural, Industrial, Information) we are in a state of flux and turmoil. Some of us use self-serving bias to defend our status or position. Some of us use the self-serving bias to rationalize our luck or privilege while we blame others who we think are less deserving like immigrants, LGBTQ+, minorities, and more. Like the man who was on TV said, “These immigrants work sixteen hours a day for six days a week. I can’t compete with that.”  And through the lens of self-serving bias the blame becomes external. 

We also see self-serving bias in how we look at the world. People can see the same thing on TV: a violent insurrection at the Capitol but see it differently. Not just differently but in diametrically opposed ways. Was it a violent mob or peaceful visitors? And that’s where the bias is laid bare. We can interpret events through our own lens of distortion to see what we want to see. It can also lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. 

But that skill isn’t going to be treasured in the Age of the Heart. Rather, being able to take different perspectives and see things through another person’s eyes will be valuable. But that’s only the first half of the skill, the second part is tougher and that is to be able to make an honest appraisal of what we see and to be aware of our own self-serving bias.