MCAT Behavioral Sciences Question 259: Answer and Explanation

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Question: 259

2. Which of the following scenarios describes the self-serving bias?

  • A. An employee who receives a bonus believes this reward was well-deserved because of how hard she worked and all of the extra hours she put in to her job.
  • B. A man who is ignored by a salesperson at a high-end suit store believes the salesperson is just a rude jerk.
  • C. A survey finds that most people think that attractive celebrities are good people.
  • D. An employee receives a promotion and feels lucky to have been "in the right place at the right time."

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

Self-serving bias occurs when we attribute our successes to ourselves and our failures to external factors; the employee who attributes her promotion to her own hard work is the best example of the self-serving bias (choice A is correct). Self-serving bias does not attribute success to external factors like luck (choice D is wrong). The man who believes a salesperson is a rude jerk after he is ignored by the salesperson is committing a fundamental attribution error, by attributing the salesperson's actions to some internal element of personality (choice B is wrong). The physical attractiveness stereotype explains why people tend to believe that attractive people are also "good" people (choice C is wrong).

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