Abstract
Self-serving biases in use of the statistical "law of large numbers" (LLN) principle were explored. On goal-enhancing and goal-neutral problems, adolescents were more prone to schema-based memory intrusions and adults were more prone to exemplar-based intrusions. By contrast, both age groups used law of large numbers reasoning more frequently on goal-threatening evidence than on goal-enhancing or goal-neutral evidence, thereby displaying self-serving reasoning biases. Among the young adults, self-serving biases in reasoning strategies were predicted by information-processing style. These findings are explained in terms of the different experiences of the two ages and the role of cognitive interference and cognitive dissonance in creating self-serving biases.