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Attribution theory (Attribution errors and biases (Actor-Observer Effect,…

- - - - Ppts hear pro- or anti-Castro essay
      - Told authors had either voiced their own opinion or were instructed to write pro/anti
      - Dispositional attributions also made in ‘instructed’ condition, i.e. people thought authors had pro/anti-Castro attitudes even if they knew authors had followed instructions
    - - Attributing road accidents to fault of the driver rather than road conditions or vehicle
      - Attributing poverty to individual’s laziness instead of social conditions
  - - - People on the political left tend to attribute unemployment externally Pandey et al., 1982
      - People on the right tend to attribute unemployment internally
  - - - Attributions are motivated, not objective
      - If you think you will fail the exam, you tell everyone that you have not prepared!
    - - Attribute own positive behaviour to dispositional factors and negative behaviour to situational factors
      - To enhance or protect self esteem
    - - The Ultimate Attribution Error (Pettigrew, ’79):
      - Negative outgroup behaviour dispositionally attributed
      - Positive outgroup behaviour externally attributed
      - The reverse is true for in-group behaviour
    - - attribute to lack of/ incorrect information
      - If this not plausible, attribute to bias or selfinterest
- - - - People look for what motivates behaviour
      - Construction of causal theories to predict and control world
      - Preference for unchanging explanations
      - Distinction between personal and environmental factors
  - - - Social perceivers infer that an individual’s behaviour is caused by (corresponds to) a trait
      - i.e., we look for stable, underlying qualities in other people
      - Inferences particularly likely if act…
        
        Freely chosen (intentional)
        
        Produced non-common (unusual) effects
        
        It is socially undesirable
        
        Has direct impact on us – hedonic relevance
        
        Seemed intended to affect us - personalism
  - - - Inferring traits automatic and effortless (first trait is identified and attributed to actor)
      - Situational corrections not automatic, but are effortful and happen later
      - We are biased towards inferring dispositions
  - - - Consistency Does X always react like this to stimulus Y?
      - Distinctiveness Does X react like this to all stimuli?
      - Consensus Do other people react to stimulus Y the same way as X does?
    - - DISCOUNT (look for different cause)
    - - But distinctiveness and consensus are low
        
        INTERNAL (Person)
      - But distinctiveness and consensus high
        
        EXTERNAL (Entity/ Stimulus)
    - - Often information (e.g. about consistency) is incomplete!
      - False consensus effect:
        
        People assume others agree with them
        
        Ross et al. asked ppts: Would you spend 30 mins going around campus advertising this cafe?
        
        Those who agreed thought most would agree
        
        Those who disagreed thought most would disagree
    - - Do people really sift through information that rationally and mechanically?
        
        Systematic errors
        
        Biases
        
        CAUSAL SCHEMATA – ready made beliefs about what can be expected
        
        Motivation/Emotions
- - - - unexpected events
      - non-attainment rather than attainment of goal
- - - - attribute aversive events to Internal Global Stable (Seligman 2002)
- - - - college students, short essay/speech on social issue, 4 groups: pro position w choice, anti position w choice, pro no choice, anti no choice
      - attitudes in line w beh were more decisevly attributed to target person in chocie condition, however even in no choice condition subjects tended to attribute attitiudes in line w speech
      - Nisbett et al 1973 - questionnaire, people assign more traits to others than sleves
      - perceptual focusing - 2 actors, 2 observers, videotaped, experimenter only films 1, actors obseving self more inclined to give dispositional explanations, observer who watched nontaped actor more inclined to give situational explanations
      - attribute causality to whatevr or whomever we look at, implivcations of this for persistent interpersoal misunderstandings
      - Regan & Totten 1975 - empathy inducing instructions :arrow_right: attribute beh to situation
    - - lab hothouse phenomena?
      - McGee & Snyder - salt
      - Snyder & Monason (in press) high self monitors, low self monitors - qualifies attributional nias - some actors attribute actions to slef others t stiuation
      - people not so much placed in situations than choose them - however situtions we choose often we have no control once in them
      - actors attribute to situations what observers attribut to situations is not a law of beh science but a useful guiding H1
      - can be subverted by special motivational factors or special knowledge
      - perosnality psychology - suffers from this