The study of social psychology has revealed many interesting phenomena related to how individuals perceive and interact with others. One such phenomenon is the group-serving bias, which refers to the tendency for individuals to view their own group in a positive light and attribute negative characteristics to outgroups. This bias has a significant impact on our understanding of group dynamics and can have important implications in various aspects of our lives, including relationships, politics, and intergroup conflicts. In this essay, we will explore the definition and impact of the group-serving bias in social psychology, and examine its underlying causes and potential consequences.
Group-serving bias is identical to self-serving bias except that it takes place between groups rather than individuals, under which group members make dispositional attributions for their group’s successes and situational attributions for group failures, and vice versa for outsider groups.
For instance, the fundamental attribution error is a self-serving bias, while the group attribution error is a group-serving bias. Perhaps the most basic form of group-serving bias is ingroup bias.