Attribution Biases in Leadership: Is It Effort or Luck?

Decision makers in positions of power often make unobserved choices under risk and uncertainty. In many cases, they face a trade-off between maximizing their own payoff and those of other individuals. What inferences are made in such instances about their choices when only outcomes are observable? We report findings from two experiments that investigate whether outcomes are attributed to luck or choices. We show that attribution biases exist in...