How preferences for eager versus vigilant judgment strategies affect self-serving conclusions |
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Authors: | Daniel C Molden E Tory Higgins |
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Institution: | a Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, USA b Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue MC 5501, New York, NY 10027, USA |
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Abstract: | People are often motivated to reach self-serving conclusions during judgment. This article examines how such self-serving judgment outcomes are influenced by preferences for different judgment strategies. Two studies tested how preferences for eager (promotion-oriented) versus vigilant (prevention-oriented) judgment strategies affected self-serving explanations for success or failure. Regardless of their performance, those preferring vigilant strategies selectively endorsed a few explanations above others, whereas those preferring eager strategies more evenly endorsed multiple explanations. Furthermore, although the explanations selected by those preferring vigilant strategies were indeed self-serving (emphasizing personal responsibility for success and external circumstances for failure), the more balanced endorsement of multiple explanations by those preferring eager strategies was associated with attenuated self-serving tendencies. Finally, those preferring eager strategies were also less self-serving in their generalization from explanations of current performance to predictions of future performance. The larger implications of these findings for the role of strategic preferences in judgment are discussed. |
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Keywords: | Motivated cognition Performance attributions Self-inference Strategic preferences Promotion motivations Prevention motivations Regulatory focus |
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