Self-Threat Magnifies the Self-Serving Bias: A Meta-Analytic Integration

1999/03/01 by W. Keith Campbell, Constantine Sedikides · 845 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Cognitive psychology #Interpersonal communication #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Moderation #Psychology #Self-control #Self-enhancement #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology #Stereotype threat #Task (project management)

paper · doi:10.1037/1089-2680.3.1.23

published in Review of General Psychology 3(1), 23-43 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 1999/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26

Abstract

Experiments testing the self-serving bias (SSB; taking credit for personal success but blaming external factors for personal failure) have used a multitude of moderators (i.e., role, task importance, outcome expectancies, self-esteem, achievement motivation, self-focused attention, task choice, perceived task difficulty, interpersonal orientation, status, affect, locus of control, gender, and task type). The present meta-analytic review established the viability and pervasiveness of the SSB and, more important, organized the 14 moderators just listed under the common theoretical umbrella of self-threat. According to the self-threat model, the high self-threat level of each moderator is associated with a larger display of the SSB than the low self-threat level. The model was supported: Self-threat magnifies the SSB.

Citations

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• The Self in Relationships: Whether, How, and When Close Others Put the Self “in Its Place”
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• On Pancultural Self-Enhancement
• Self-enhancement [wikipedia]