| Abstract: | Abstract A number of laboratory studies report evidence for a self-serving bias in attribution for group success and failure. In more recent research using real-life groups, however, a group-serving bias has emerged: Individual group members attribute blame to themselves for group failure and share the responsibility for success with fellow group members. The present study attempted to assess the extent to which group members are sensitive to attributional styles for group performance. Self-serving and group-serving response patterns were prepared by the experimenter, in the form of answers given by hockey players to a questionnaire, and these were presented to members of different hockey teams. Respondents reacted consistently more favorably to the player exhibiting the group-serving pattern, especially in terms of the contribution such a person would make to group cohesiveness. |
