What’s Behind Self-Righteous Attitudes?

One of the causes of asymmetric self-righteousness is that “people evaluate themselves by adopting an ‘inside perspective’ focused heavily on evaluations of mental states such as intentions and motives, but evaluate others based on an ‘outside perspective’ that focuses on observed behavior for which intentions and motives are then inferred,” said the researchers.

Accordingly, the findings show that people who are more likely to assign cynical motives to their own behavior exhibit a smaller asymmetry in self-righteousness.

Research suggests that we all perceive ourselves as more generous than others. For example, we tend to believe we are more likely than others to donate blood, give to charity, treat another person

Source: What’s Behind Self-Righteous Attitudes?