With MCAT tutoring from MedSchoolCoach, we are committed to help you prepare, excel, and optimize your ideal score on the MCAT exam.
For each student we work with, we learn about their learning style, content knowledge, and goals. We match them with the most suitable tutor and conduct online sessions that make them feel as if they are in the classroom. Each session is recorded, plus with access to whiteboard notes. We focus on high-yield topics if you're pressed for time. If you have more time or high-score goals, we meticulously cover the entire MCAT syllabus.
Self-serving bias and fundamental attribution error are two prominent cognitive biases that shed light on the way we perceive and interpret the behavior of ourselves and others. This post covers what you need to know about both cognitive biases for the MCAT exam.
Self-serving bias describes how individuals alter the perception of causality to preserve self-esteem. In other words, when something happens to you, you explain it in a way that boosts your self-esteem. You’ll take credit for something good that happens to you, and you’ll pass the blame off on someone to something else when something bad happens. Relating this to attribution, when something good happens to you, you’ll probably attribute your success to internal factors, such as your own good characteristics. When something bad happens to you, you’ll probably say that it was due to external factors beyond your control, and so whatever bad thing happened wasn’t your fault. For example, consider a teacher who administers an exam to their students. If the class does really well on the exam, the teacher will believe that it was due to their high-quality teaching. If the students do poorly on the exam, the teacher might claim that the students were too lazy to study the material properly.
The fundamental attribution error describes how we we attribute negative behaviors of others to internal factors and positive behaviors to external factors. For example, if someone is late to a work meeting, we might jump to assume that it’s because they’re an inconsiderate person. Notice how we apply the opposite standards of the self-serving bias when we judge others.