Abstract
We examined whether differences found between Japanese and North Americans on a variety of self-serving biases would also be observed for the hindsight bias. In fact, Japanese and Canadians exhibited similar hindsight biases under memory instructions, and Canadians showed only a marginally more pronounced bias than Japanese underhypothetical instructions (where self-serving motivations appear more implicated). We suggest that cultural differences between Japanese and North Americans in distorted cognitions are most pronounced when self-enhancing opportunities become salient.
