Which bias describes taking credit for successes and rejecting blame for failures?

• A. Destiny Beliefs
• B. Actor / Observer Effects
• C. Attributions Controllable
• D. Self-serving bias

Answer: (D)

Self-serving bias is the tendency to take credit for successes and reject blame for failures in order to protect self-esteem. This means people attribute positive outcomes to their own abilities and efforts, while blaming external factors (luck, difficulty, others) when things go wrong. In everyday situations, you might see this when someone performs well on a project and credits themselves, but when the same project fails, they blame miscommunication, bad instructions, or external obstacles rather than their own preparation. In relationships, this bias can show up as celebrating what one person did right and deflecting responsibility when things go poorly, which can hinder honest reflection and accountability.

Destiny beliefs are about outcomes being determined by fate rather than by personal control. Actor/Observer effects describe the tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to the situation while attributing others’ behavior to their dispositions, not the general pattern of taking credit for success and denying failure. Attributions about controllability refer to whether causes are seen as within one’s control, which is related but doesn’t specifically describe the credit/blame pattern.