IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobhdp/v108y2009i1p143-152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the genesis of inflated (and deflated) judgments of responsibility

Author

Listed:
  • Kruger, Justin
  • Savitsky, Kenneth

Abstract

Prior research has found that people tend to overestimate their relative contribution to joint tasks [e.g., Ross, M., & Sicoly, F. (1979). Egocentric biases in availability and attribution. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 322-336]. The present research investigates one source of this bias, and in doing so, identifies an important moderator of the effect. Three studies demonstrate that when people estimate their relative contribution to collective endeavors they focus on their own contribution and give less consideration to the contribution of their collaborators. This can cause overestimation for tasks in which total contributions are plentiful, but underestimation for tasks in which total contributions are few--despite the fact that both tasks reflect positively on the person who performs them. These results extend Ross and Sicoly's (1979) original analysis of bias in responsibility judgments, but also suggest that the tendency to overestimate one's relative contribution to collaborations is not as ubiquitous as once thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Kruger, Justin & Savitsky, Kenneth, 2009. "On the genesis of inflated (and deflated) judgments of responsibility," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 143-152, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:108:y:2009:i:1:p:143-152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749-5978(08)00073-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klar, Yechiel & Medding, Aviva & Sarel, Dan, 1996. "Nonunique Invulnerability: Singular versus Distributional Probabilities and Unrealistic Optimism in Comparative Risk Judgments," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 229-245, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moore, Don A. & Cain, Daylian M., 2007. "Overconfidence and underconfidence: When and why people underestimate (and overestimate) the competition," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 197-213, July.
    2. Silvia Dominguez‐Martinez & Otto H. Swank, 2009. "A Simple Model of Self‐Assessment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(539), pages 1225-1241, July.
    3. Siegrist, Michael & Cvetkovich, George & Gutscher, Heinz, 2002. "Risk Preference Predictions and Gender Stereotypes," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 91-102, January.
    4. Menon, Geeta & Kyung, Ellie J. & Agrawal, Nidhi, 2009. "Biases in social comparisons: Optimism or pessimism?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 39-52, January.
    5. repec:cup:judgdm:v:17:y:2022:i:2:p:449-486 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Fast, Nathanael J. & Sivanathan, Niro & Mayer, Nicole D. & Galinsky, Adam D., 2012. "Power and overconfident decision-making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 249-260.
    7. Suls, Jerry & Chambers, John & Krizan, Zlatan & Mortensen, Chad R. & Koestner, Bryan & Bruchmann, Kathryn, 2010. "Testing four explanations for the better/worse-than-average effect: Single- and multi-item entities as comparison targets and referents," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 62-72, September.
    8. Don A. Moore, 2007. "When good = better than average," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 2, pages 277-291, October.
    9. repec:cup:judgdm:v:11:y:2016:i:1:p:7-20 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Verena Jung & Sascha L. Schmidt & Benno Torgler, 2012. "What Shapes Young Elite Athletes' Perception of Chances in an Environment of Great Uncertainty?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2012-14, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    11. Daylian M. Cain & Don A. Moore & Uriel Haran, 2015. "Making sense of overconfidence in market entry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 1-18, January.
    12. Kuhn, Kristine M. & Yockey, Mark D., 2003. "Variable pay as a risky choice: Determinants of the relative attractiveness of incentive plans," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 323-341, March.
    13. Verena Jung & Sascha L. Schmidt & Benno Torgler, 2012. "What Shapes Young Elite Athletes' Perception of Chances in an Environment of Great Uncertainty?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2012-14, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    14. Kamphorst, Jurjen J.A. & Swank, Otto H., 2013. "When Galatea cares about her reputation: How having faith in your workers reduces their motivation to shine," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 91-104.
    15. Max Korbmacher & Ching (Isabelle) Kwan & Gilad Feldman, 2022. "Both better and worse than others depending on difficulty: Replication and extensions of Kruger’s (1999) above and below average effects," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 17(2), pages 449-486, March.
    16. Adam J L Harris & Laura de Molière & Melinda Soh & Ulrike Hahn, 2017. "Unrealistic comparative optimism: An unsuccessful search for evidence of a genuinely motivational bias," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-35, March.
    17. Smith, Rachel A. & Morrison, Daniel, 2006. "The impact of stigma, experience, and group referent on HIV risk assessments and HIV testing intentions in Namibia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(10), pages 2649-2660, November.
    18. Shai Davidai & Thomas Gilovich, 2016. "The tide that lifts all focal boats: Asymmetric predictions of ascent and descent in rankings," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(1), pages 7-20, January.
    19. Teigen, Karl Halvor, 2001. "When Equal Chances = Good Chances: Verbal Probabilities and the Equiprobability Effect," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 77-108, May.
    20. Jurjen J.A. Kamphorst & Otto H. Swank, 2018. "The role of performance appraisals in motivating employees," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 251-269, June.
    21. Anna M. Cianci & Satoris S. Culbertson, 2010. "The Impact of Motivational and Cognitive Factors on Optimistic Earnings Forecasts," Chapters, in: Brian Bruce (ed.), Handbook of Behavioral Finance, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    22. repec:jdm:journl:v:17:y:2022:i:6:p:1392-1421 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. repec:cup:judgdm:v:2:y:2007:i::p:277-291 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Moore, Don A., 2007. "Not so above average after all: When people believe they are worse than average and its implications for theories of bias in social comparison," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 42-58, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:108:y:2009:i:1:p:143-152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/obhdp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.