Self-serving Attributional Bias Research Articles

Experienced Financial Managers' Views of the Relationships among Self-Serving Attribution Bias, Overconfidence, and the Issuance of Management Forecasts: A Replication

ABSTRACTUsing the same questions as Libby and Rennekamp (2015), we survey 110 experienced managers to examine their beliefs about the relationship between self-serving attribution bias, overconfidence, and management's issuance of earnings forecasts. As in Libby and Rennekamp (2015), we find that participants agree that, in general, managers are overconfident. They also agree that other managers likely overestimate the extent to which they contribute to positive firm performance, and that both optimism about the firm's future performance, as well as managers' confidence in their ability to predict future performance, increase the likelihood that earnings forecasts are provided. Finally, participants agree that providing earnings forecasts amplifies the costs of negative outcomes and the benefits of positive outcomes, consistent with the experimental assumption in Libby and Rennekamp (2012). These findings suggest that the experimental findings in Libby and Rennekamp (2012) match experienced managers' beliefs about how real-world earnings forecast decisions are made.

Commentary On: Experienced Financial Managers' Views of the Relationships among Self-Serving Attribution Bias, Overconfidence, and the Issuance of Management Forecasts: A Replication

Commentary On: Experienced Financial Managers' Views of the Relationships among Self-Serving Attribution Bias, Overconfidence, and the Issuance of Management Forecasts: A Replication

Self-serving attributional bias among Chinese adolescents

Self-serving attributional bias among Chinese adolescents

Manajemen Laba Dalam Praktik Manajemen Impresi Pada Perusahaan Bumn Yang Terdaftar Di Bei Periode 2012-2014

This study aimed to examine the effect of earnings management on impression management in the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) that is focused on the financial performance analysis. Earnings management is measured using discretionary accruals and impression management is measured using an index that includes self-serving attribution and accounting explanation bias. This study uses the firms size and liquidity ratio (current ratio) as control variables that are considered relevant and have interaction with the independent variables and the dependent variable was tested in this study. Samples were obtained from annual reports of state-owned enterprises listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period 2012 to 2014. The results showed that earnings management does not have a significant influence on the management of state-owned enterprises impression. However, the control variables firms size and liquidity ratio (current ratio) was shown to significantly affect the management of state-owned enterprises impression.

Experienced Financial Managerss Views of the Relationships Among Self-Serving Attribution Bias, Overconfidence, and the Issuance of Management Forecasts: A Replication

Experienced Financial Managerss Views of the Relationships Among Self-Serving Attribution Bias, Overconfidence, and the Issuance of Management Forecasts: A Replication

Challenges of Writing Dissertations: Perceptual Differences between Students and Supervisors in a Ghanaian Polytechnic

This study explored the perceptions of students and supervisors on the interplay of institutional-student-supervisor related factors that militate against the writing and completion of quality dissertations in Ghanaian Polytechnics. Based on 491 usable self-questionnaires retrieved from final year students and supervisors, descriptive results indicate both students and supervisors unanimously agreed that students experience considerable challenge accessing scholarly journals, textbooks, internet and literature, inadequate funding and irregular and delayed feedback from supervisors when writing their dissertations. Furthermore, the Mann-Whitney U-test results revealed that both students and supervisors exhibited self-serving attribution bias in their perception of the challenges of writing and completing dissertation concerning student and supervisor related factors. Improvement in students’ access to scholarly literature and supervisors being more accessible and providing quick feedback to students are recommended.

Rural, suburban, and urban schools: The impact of school setting on the efficacy beliefs and attributions of student teachers

This study investigated student teachers' efficacy beliefs, to determine if school setting (i.e., rural, suburban, and urban) impacted teachers' sense of efficacy. Each setting group exhibited significant increases in teachers' sense of efficacy following student teaching. The urban student teachers exhibited significantly lower teachers' sense of efficacy. We also examined the attributions (external or internal) the student teachers made following student teaching. The urban student teachers did not make more external attributions than the rural and suburban student teachers, and the patterns of the self-serving attributional bias as well as the fundamental attribution error were apparent.

Coping Strategies as Mediating Variables Between Self-serving Attributional Bias and Subjective Well-Being

Self-serving attributional bias (SSAB) is defined as the tendency to attribute positive situations to internal, stable and global causes, and negative situations to external, unstable and specific causes. SSAB, like other manifestations of the self-enhancement motive, is aimed at protecting self-esteem, and therefore expected to be associated with well-being. Furthermore, given the features of this bias, this possible positive association between SSAB and well-being could be mediated by coping strategies. In this study, we wanted to analyze the relationships among SSAB, coping strategies and subjective well-being. Two hundred and five individuals (90 male and 115 female, mean age = 35.99, ranging from 22 to 50) participated voluntarily in this study. Path analysis showed that SSAB had an indirect effect on life satisfaction (the cognitive component of subjective well-being) through the affect balance (the emotional component of subjective well-being). In turn, SSAB had both a direct and an indirect effect on affect balance. The indirect effect was through the use of problem solving and positive cognitive restructuring coping strategies as well as the non-use of avoidant ones. These results suggest that well-being promotion programs should aim at encouraging the use of problem solving and positive cognitive restructuring coping strategies, as well as promoting healthy attributional styles.

Self-Serving Attribution Bias and CEO Turnover: Evidence from CEO Interviews on CNBC

Self-serving attribution bias (SAB, hereafter) is a type of misattribution bias in which CEOs attribute the out-performance of the company to their own abilities, and under-performance of the company to bad luck or the economy. Using the transcripts of CEO interviews on CNBC, we find that the stock market response to the interviews of CEOs with self-referencing behavior is negative. Moreover, the CEOs with SAB are more likely to be fired and more sensitively to performance, especially if the governance is stronger. We also find that the stock market response to the announcement of forced turnovers of CEOs with SAB are significantly more positive by up to 9.7% over the event window of [-1,1] days. While we find the negative tone of the interviewing journalists increases the likelihood of forced CEO turnover and increases the turnover-performance sensitivity, the correlation between turnover and SAB is robust.

Cultural differences in athlete attributions for success and failure: The sports pages revisited†

Self-serving biases in attribution, while found with relative consistency in research with Western samples, have rarely been found in Japanese samples typically recruited for research. However, research conducted with Japanese participants to date has tended to use forced-choice and/or reactive paradigms, with school or university students, focusing mainly on academic performance or arbitrary and/or researcher-selected tasks. This archival study explored whether self-serving attributional biases would be shown in the real-life attributions for sporting performance made by elite Olympic athletes from Japan and Australia. Attributions (N = 216) were extracted from the sports pages of Japanese and Australian newspapers and rated by Australian judges for locus and controllability. It was hypothesized that Australian, but not Japanese, athletes would show self-serving biases such that they attributed wins to causes more internal and controllable than the causes to which they attributed losses. Contrary to predictions, self-serving biases were shown to at least some extent by athletes of both nationalities. Both Australian and Japanese men attributed wins to causes more internal than those to which they attributed losses. Women, however, attributed wins and losses to causes that did not differ significantly in terms of locus. All athletes tended to attribute wins to causes that were more controllable than the causes to which losses were attributed. Results are inconsistent with a large body of research suggesting that Japanese do not show self-serving biases in attribution, and are discussed in the light of differences in methodology, context, and participants that may have contributed to these effects.

Understanding driver anger and aggression: Attributional theory in the driving environment.

Two studies tested the applicability of Weiner's (1995, 1996, 2001, 2006) attributional model of social conduct to roadway environments. This model highlights the role of inferences of responsibility after making causal judgments for social transgressions. Study 1 employed written scenarios where participants were asked to imagine themselves driving on a major highway. The degree of controllability and intentionality of the driving act was manipulated experimentally by altering the specific event-related details provided to the participants. Study 2 extended this research to life events by having participants complete online driving diaries every 2 days, identifying their most negative/upsetting encounter with another motorist. The most anger-provoking event was selected from among 4 diary entries and participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire similar to that used in Study 1. Path analyses in both studies generally supported predictions derived from Weiner's model; the association between perceived controllability, intentionality, and dispositional locus of causality of the negative driving event and subsequent anger was mediated by perceptions of responsibility. Additional results in Study 2 suggested that low perceived controllability, intentionality, and dispositional locus of causality were associated with reduced perceived responsibility, which, in turn, facilitated feelings of sympathy. Anger was associated with aggressive responses to the offending driver, whereas sympathy was associated with prosocial responses. Recommendations were offered for improved driver safety, including the development of attributional retraining programs to combat self-serving attributional biases, teaching novice drivers about both formal and informal roadway communication, and the promotion of forgiveness among drivers

Did I do that? Group Positioning and Asymmetry in Attributional Bias

A laboratory experiment examined whether one structural feature of groups—members’ physical positioning—may produce asymmetry in their perceived contribution to a task. In particular, we investigated asymmetry in group members’ (often excessive) claims of credit for collective tasks (“the self-serving attributional bias”). Consistent with the availability account of this bias, group members located in the middle of a group, with easy visual access to their partners’ contributions, demonstrated less bias than outside members (who demonstrated bias consistent with prior research)—but no less satisfaction. Further analyses suggested that these results reflected bias reduction among middle members and did stem from visual availability. We conclude that the visual constraints imposed by physical positioning influence the availability of information and thus generate asymmetric attributional bias—with implications for conflict and its reduction.

Managers’ Self-Serving Attribution Bias and Corporate Financial Policies

The self-serving attribution bias (SAB) refers to individuals taking responsibility for good outcomes and blaming others for bad outcomes. Consistent with the existence of managerial SAB, I find that managers tend to use more first-person pronouns (relative to second- and third-person pronouns) in the Management Discussions and Analysis Section of the 10-K filings when firm performance is better. A consequence of SAB is overconfidence (i.e., overestimating the mean and underestimating the variance of future cash flows). Consistent with this argument, managers with more SAB are more likely to issue forward-looking statements and make earnings forecasts, the tone (e.g., positive versus negative) of their forward-looking discussions has smaller variation, and their earnings forecasts tend to be overly optimistic. Firms whose managers have more SAB have higher investment-cash flow sensitivity and experience more negative market reactions around acquisition announcements. These firms also tend to have higher leverage, rely more on long-term debt financing, are more likely to repurchase stocks, and are less likely to issue dividends. Collectively, the evidence suggests that managers have self-serving attribution bias and this bias has implications for corporate policies.

Did I Do that? Group Positioning and Asymmetry in Attributional Bias

A laboratory experiment examined whether one structural feature of groups, members' physical positioning, may produce asymmetry in their perceived contribution to a task. In particular, we investigated asymmetry in group members' (often excessive) claims of credit for collective tasks (the self-serving attributional bias). Consistent with the availability account of this bias, group members located in the middle of a group, with easy visual access to their partners' contributions, demonstrated less bias than outside members (who demonstrated bias consistent with prior research), but no less satisfaction. Further analyses suggested that these results reflected bias reduction among middle members, and did stem from visual availability. We conclude that the visual constraints imposed by physical positioning influence the availability of information and thus generate asymmetric attributional bias, with implications for conflict and its reduction.

A Test of the Self-Serving Attribution Bias: Evidence from Mutual Funds

A Test of the Self-Serving Attribution Bias: Evidence from Mutual Funds

Explaining Performance in Annual Reports: Are American or Japanese Executives More Self-Serving?

When a company experiences a year of disap pointing results, are executives more likely to blame themselves or challenging eco nomic conditions? And when a company has a banner year, are executives more likely to credit themselves or favorable economic circumstances? Psychologists refer to this pattern?where in dividuals see themselves as fully responsible for their successes yet blame external sources for their failures?as the self-serving attributional bias. The classic example is the student who attributes his superior grades to internal reasons (e.g., intelli gence or hard work) but relies heavily on external reasons to explain lousy grades (e.g., lousy teach ers). Generally speaking, researchers have found that individuals use the self-serving attributional bias to maintain their psychological well-being and to manage impressions. Considering that the self-serving attributional bias has been shown by many classic social psy chological studies to be fairly common, it may have also found its way into the executive suite. In particular, corporate leaders may stand to gain if they can take credit for success while avoiding blame for failure, especially when it comes to firm performance. Reggy Hooghiemstra of the Univer sity of Groningen in the Netherlands addressed this topic in a recent study that compared how U.S. and Japanese companies apply the self-serv ing attributional bias in explanations of their an nual performance to shareholders. The fact that most research on the self-serving attributional bias has been conducted in the United States raises questions about the extent to which this phenomenon exists in other cultures. Indeed, studies have shown that the self-serving attributional bias tends to be less prevalent in Asian cultures (e.g., China and Japan) than it is in the United States. Essentially, in Western cultures a person's self-esteem and identity are much more connected with his individual achievements and unique contributions than in many Asian cul tures. As a result, individuals from Western cul tures generally may have a greater need to protect their self-esteem through biased explanations of their own behavior than do their counterparts in Asia. Conversely, in Japan and other Asian soci eties, people may feel more social pressure to blend in and harmonize with their peer groups, making it socially awkward to take credit for any successes that would make them stand out. Con

East—West Differences in Attributions for Company Performance

Prior cross-cultural studies indicate that the self-serving attributional bias is more prevalent in Western cultures than in Eastern cultures. There is, however, a dearth of research looking into cross-cultural differences in attributional patterns that is based on publicly available archival data. This study tries to fill that lacuna. It reports the results based on a content analysis of corporate annual reports from U.S. and Japanese companies. The results reported in this study demonstrate that cross-cultural differences found in experimental settings are not necessarily observed in naturalistic settings. Specifically, this study reveals that both U.S. as well as Japanese companies explain company results in a self-serving fashion. Overall, the results support the notion that the nature of the relationship affects the extent to which cross-cultural differences in attributional patterns emerge.

A Test of the Self-Serving Attribution Bias: Evidence from Mutual Funds

This paper studies the dynamics of investor overconfidence. Using the sum of absolute deviations from one’s benchmark index (i.e., Active Share) as a proxy for confidence, we show that the average mutual fund manager tends to boost his confidence to a larger extent after receiving confirming public signals than to decrease it after disconfirming public signals. This bias is stronger among inexperienced managers and is largely absent among experienced ones. The bias also leads to poor future performance, the majority of which is driven by managers’ sub-optimal portfolio choices. In dissecting managers’ portfolio choices, we further document that the underperformance resulting from biased attribution is potentially due to managers’ increasingly active stock picks in industries that they are less familiar with.

Attribution characteristics of chinese teachers and students: From some interaction experiences on campus

Teacher-student conflict is attracting people’s attention in China. This study utilized attribution theories to investigate the attribution features of Mainland Chinese teacher and student groups for negative events in their interactions. It found out that due to the factor of social identity, the two groups revealed a significant self-serving bias in attribution of events related to teaching and learning. As for events related to other campus activities, major tendencies of the two groups were consistent for situational factors due to the influence of social values and campus cultures. However, in regards to other factors for these events, rather than social factors, the two groups showed cognitive gaps as well.

Is there a universal positivity bias in attributions? A meta-analytic review of individual, developmental, and cultural differences in the self-serving attributional bias.

Researchers have suggested the presence of a self-serving attributional bias, with people making more internal, stable, and global attributions for positive events than for negative events. This study examined the magnitude, ubiquity, and adaptiveness of this bias. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 266 studies, yielding 503 independent effect sizes. The average d was 0.96, indicating a large bias. The bias was present in nearly all samples. There were significant age differences, with children and older adults displaying the largest biases. Asian samples displayed significantly smaller biases (d = 0.30) than U.S. (d = 1.05) or Western (d = 0.70) samples. Psychopathology was associated with a significantly attenuated bias (d = 0.48) compared with samples without psychopathology (d = 1.28) and community samples (d = 1.08). The bias was smallest for samples with depression (0.21), anxiety (0.46), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (0.55). Findings confirm that the self-serving attributional bias is pervasive in the general population but demonstrates significant variability across age, culture, and psychopathology.