People overclaim credit for joint work because their own actions are most salient

Evidence

For many of the same reasons, “individuals tend to accept more responsibility for a joint project than other contributors attribute to them” (Ross & Sicoly, 1979, p. 322). This is true for couples’ beliefs about how much each of them contributes to routine household chores and major decisions; it also is the case for subjects in problem-solving experiments. That the effect is present, although attenuated, when the group product is criticized shows that ego gratification cannot entirely explain the bias. Further evidence that what is at work is the propensity for people to attribute primary responsibility to factors about which they are most aware—which is usually things they have said or done—is supplied by an experimental manipulation. If the experimenter heightens the subject’s recollection of the other person’s actions, the subject will accord the other person a greater share of the responsibility for the outcome. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2577

Categorization

• XREF: Ross & Sicoly’s self-centered bias connects to the actor-observer asymmetry and to Milgrom’s institutional design problems about information asymmetries. — connects to: Higher-status people receive more credit for identical work — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 68
• CANDY: Quotable: everyone believes they do more than their share of household chores — and it’s a cognitive bias, not necessarily vanity.