Conclusion: Of What Value Are Self-Biases?

The Social Animal - Elliot Aronson - 8th Edition 1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716733129/

When we treat mental processes as objects and discover that the
overwhelming majority of people engage in such behavior as egocentric
thought and the self-serving bias, it would be easy to conclude that
(1) humans are pathetic, irrational, silly organisms who blind
themselves from seeing things as they are, and (2) self-biases should
be eliminated at all cost. Such conclusions would be a gross
oversimplification. First, as mentioned earlier, although we humans
frequently engage in biased thinking, we are also capable of clear,
rational thought. Moreover, self-biases can serve important purposes.
The individual who believes that he or she is the cause of good things
will try harder and persist longer to achieve difficult goals. Such
efforts can result in new scientific discoveries, great works of art,
or political agreements that can be of great benefit to millions of
people.

An interesting example of this kind of process emerges from the
results of a study of basketball players done by Robert Grove and his
colleagues. Grove found that winning teams attributed their success to
stable causes, while teams that lost attributed their failure to
unstable causes like flukes, bad breaks, and the like. This bias can
be beneficial (at least in the short run) because it allows losing
teams to avoid being psychologically devastated by setbacks, to hang
in there and continue playing in the face of a string of defeats.

There may be even more important temporary benefits to self-biases as
well. That's what Shelley Taylor found." She interviewed hundreds of
people who had faced tragic or near-tragic events. Her interviewees
included rape victims, cancer patients, and others with life-
threatening illnesses. She found that, far from destroying these
individuals, the tragic event had given most of them a new lease on
life. This was especially true if they held overly optimistic
perceptions concerning their chances of recovery from disease or
believed that they could control the likelihood of future
victimization. The belief that one can overcome tragic obstacles—even
if this belief was an illusion—led these people to adopt better health
practices and to develop coping strategies for dealing with stress
that had a salutary effect on their lives.

Similarly, Martin Seligman has found across a variety of studies that
an optimistic style of thinking—believing that a defeat is due to bad
luck and can be overcome by effort and ability—leads to more
achievement, better health, and an improved mental outlook. In brief,
engaging in egocentric thought and self-serving attributions has an
array of benefits. At the same time, it is important to bear in mind
that these positive consequences are not without their price—and as
you have undoubtedly gathered, the major price is a somewhat distorted
picture of the self and the world in general.

Ironically, as we have seen, this distorted picture of the world is
frequently caused by a motive to justify ourselves and our behavior—to
interpret or distort the meaning of our actions so as to bring it in
line with what we would regard as consistent with the actions of a
morally good and sensible human being. For me, one of the most
fascinating aspects of the social animal is our touching need to see
ourselves as good and sensible people—and how this need frequently
leads us to perform actions that are neither good nor sensible. The
human tendency for self-justification is so important that it deserves
a chapter all to itself; it is to this chapter that we now turn.

The Social Animal - Elliot Aronson - 8th Edition 1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716733129/