Self-serving bias suggests that people tend to attribute success to internal factors and attribute failure to external factors (Bradley,J Pers Soc Psychol 36:56-71,1978;Miller and Ross,Psychol Bull 82:213-225,1975).However,the results of the attribution of failure are not always consistent.Some studies have found that people attribute failure to external factors (Snyder,Stephan,& Rosenfileld,1976) and others suggest that people attribute failure to internal factors (Ross et al.,J Pers Soc Psychol 29:609-618,1974).I tested self-serving bias in two different contexts in mainland China:in one,test results were public (students had access to each other's test results) and in the other,test results were private (students only had access to his/her own results).When a context triggers individuals to compare themselves to others,individuals may alter their attribution of failure in order to preserve their self-image and self-esteem.Data were analyzed by repeated measure ANOVA,and the results show that in a public context people tend to attribute failure more to external factors than to themselves.Also,results suggest that people attribute failure less to themselves in a public context than in a private context.