The self-serving bias is a cognitive bias occurring when individuals make internal responsibility attributions for a success and make external responsibility attributions for a failure. In the present work the self-serving bias was investigated in the context of couple relationship through an experimental methodology. Participants were 32 romantic couples and 32 dyads composed of two strangers paired by the experimenter in the lab. After an interdependent-outcome task participants received a bogus feedback on their joint performance and made responsibility attributions for the task outcome. Results showed that romantic coulpes displayed the other-serving bias giving the responsiblity to the partner for a success and to themselves for a failure. The other-serving bias was interpreted as an indicator of partners’ couple identity.

Miriam Parise, Raffaella Iafrate, Claudia Manzi, Ariela Francesca Pagani, It’s all my fault! self-serving bias in couple relationship in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 4/2010, pp. 521-537, DOI:10.3280/RIP2010-004003