Heuristics and Biases in Audience Decision Making 229SCENARIO 1: AN ACROSS-THE-BOARD RAISE TO EMPLOYEES
Imagine you are an employee. Do you think a 10% raise is a good idea?Imagine you are the business owner. Do you think a 10% raise is a good idea?SCENARIO 2: DAMAGES FOR A CAR ACCIDENT
Imagine you were in a car accident. The judge determined it was their fault.
Should the other driver pay for all of the damages and receive a fine?Imagine you were in a car accident. The judge determined it was your fault.
Should you pay for all of the damages and receive a fine?The Self-Serving Bias: The Power of Roles
When presented with identical information, different audience members activate different sche-
mata depending on their role in the situation. The particular schema they activate tends to be the
one that best promotes their perceived self-interest. For example, Democrats typically support a
program if it is referred to as a Democratic program and reject the same program if it is referred to
as a Republican program; the converse is true of Republicans.^251 Similarly, when audience members
are asked to take the role of someone personally affected by a policy, they tend to make a different
decision about the policy than when they are asked to take the role of the policy maker.^252
Psychologists call this tendency the self-serving bias.^253 The bias is not caused by a desire to beunfair, but by a human inability to interpret information in an unbiased manner.^254 Furthermore,
audiences tend to confuse what is benefi cial to them personally with what is fair or moral. Con-
sider the following two scenarios. Does your answer change depending on your role in it?
Even professional tax accountants, who are trained to be unbiased, tend to interpret judicial cases in away that is consistent with their client’s preferences.^255 As a consequence, many recommendations made
by tax accountants tend to be overly aggressive and cannot be justifi ed when challenged by the IRS.
The self-serving bias is perhaps best known for leading people to take more responsibility fortheir successes than for their failures^256 and to take more credit than they deserve.^257 A content
analysis of one year’s annual reports from Fortune 500 companies found that CEOs whose fi rms
had a net loss for the year took responsibility for the loss in fewer than 11% of the cases. In about
89% of the cases, the CEOs blamed external factors such as the economy, the competition, govern-
ment regulations, or their employees. Conversely, CEOs whose fi rms had a net profi t for the year
took credit for their fi rm’s profi tability in fully 90% of the cases.^258
The self-serving bias is not the only bias triggered by the schemata that roles activate. Otherbiases can be triggered by the schemata activated by the role a speaker assumes in relation to her
audience. For example, a child advocating a protection-themed message such as nuclear disarma-
ment activates a “protector” schema in adult audience members and is more persuasive than an
expert advocating the same message. An expert, on the other hand, activates an “unknowing
public” schema in audience members and is more persuasive than a child when advocating for a
technical issue such as a tenth planet.^259