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We blame luck for our losses
That habit is called self-serving bias. A bad outcome would damage the story of being smart and doing well, so luck takes the blame, and a good outcome gets credited to genius. It shows up in every area of life. Someone else's promotion becomes bad luck for us instead of a result of the work they did. In reports of two-car accidents, over 90 percent are described as the other person's fault.
For people in our comparison group, the pattern flips. Their wins are luck, and their losses show they are bad decision makers. Poker, a zero-sum game, shows how both habits grow together. If I pin my losing hand on bad luck, your win has to be good luck, since I can't credit it to your skill. If I credit my own win to skill, your loss can't be luck either, because that wouldn't fit.
Why does the mind protect itself this way?
Psychologists Dale Miller and Michael Ross published a 1975 review of studies on what they called self-serving biases in how people explain causes. People tended to take credit for successes and to place blame for failures on circumstances. Researchers have proposed two explanations: that the habit protects self-esteem and that it helps manage how others see us. Studies since have found the pattern across many cultures, though its strength varies.
How common is thinking we are above average?
In a 1981 study, Swedish psychologist Ola Svenson asked drivers in the United States and Sweden to rate their own driving skill compared with others in the group. About 93 percent of the American drivers placed themselves in the top half, and around 69 percent of the Swedish drivers did the same. The result is a standard demonstration of the better-than-average effect. Since only half of any group can be above its median, the numbers show that self-ratings run high.
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