Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Self-Serving Attribution Biases in the Competitive Context of Organized Sport

Authors

Mark S. Allen, University of WollongongFollow
Davina Robson, University of Wollongong
Luc Martin
Sylvain Laborde

RIS ID

140974

Publication Details

Allen, M., Robson, D., Martin, L. & Laborde, S. (2019). Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Self-Serving Attribution Biases in the Competitive Context of Organized Sport. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,

Abstract

2019 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. This meta-analysis explored the magnitude of self-serving attribution biases for real-world athletic outcomes. A comprehensive literature search identified 69 studies (160 effect sizes; 10,515 athletes) that were eligible for inclusion. Inverse-variance weighted random-effects meta-analysis showed that sport performers have a tendency to attribute personal success to internal factors and personal failure to external factors (k = 40, standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.62), a tendency to attribute team success to factors within the team and team failure to factors outside the team (k = 23, SMD = 0.63), and a tendency to claim more personal responsibility for team success and less personal responsibility for team failure (k = 4, SMD = 0.28). There was some publication bias and heterogeneity in computed averages. Random effects meta-regression identified sample sex, performance level, and world-region as important moderators of pooled mean effects. These findings provide a foundation for theoretical development of self-serving tendencies in real-world settings.