Question

When Damon filed his 2013 tax return 3 months before it was due, he told his wife, "I just try to be very responsible and get things like this done ahead of time." When he filed his 2014 tax return 3 weeks late, he told her, "There was so much to do that I wasn't able to get to it in time." Damon is demonstrating the __________ bias.

Answer 1

I would say he was exhibiting a circumstancial bias ie blaming the circumstances for not being able to complete his 2014 income taxes in time instead of taking responsibility and admitting that he was not organized enough to complete it in 2014 and resolving to prepare well ahead of time for 2015 in case of other committments arising at the same time.

Answer 2

The right answer is self-serving.

The concept of self-serving bias refers to the tendency of people to attribute the causality of their success to their own qualities (internal causes) and their failures to factors that do not depend on them (external causes), in order to maintain positive their self-image.

For example, an individual will justify getting a good mark on an exam by referring to the work they have done while explaining that they get a bad mark by the severity of the proofreader.