biases in attributions lect 4 Flashcards
what is the attribution theory
Heider
distinction between cause of behaviour being internal or external
attribution theory according to kelly
co variation model
-understanding circumstances in which a person will make an internal vs external attribution
what are the 3 pieces of info needed to make an internal/external attribution
-consistency ‘does this person fail maths tests because they
always fail maths tests’
-distinctiveness ‘does this person fail only maths tests oro all subjects’
-consensus ‘ have others in the class failed the test too’
how do we look into the accuracy we have when making attributions
-we look at the biases in explaining own and others behaviours
what is a bias
distortion/excess
what is bias 1 in making attributions
fundamental attribution error/correspondence bias
-when behaviour seems to match a corresponding trait and people attribute these behaviours to dispositional factors
-tendency to attribute behaviour to disposition rather than situational factors (fiske and taylor)
support for tendency to attribute dispositionally
jones and harris
-pp read pro/anti castro essay
-cond1 = pp told writer has free choice of pro/anti castro
-cond2 = pp told writer was instructed on pro/anti castro
-in both cond, pp believed essay reflected writer’s stance
-failure to consider situational influence in cond 2
ross et al study
-pp divided into quiz master and contestant
-quiz master role = devise 10 tough but fair qs
-after quiz pp rate own and others general knowledge ability
-contestants rated quiz master as more knowledgeable
-quiz master rated themself as similar knowledge
-contestants ignore quiz masters advantage that they came up with qs
-failure to consider situational attributions
explanation to avoiding situational factors in attributions
Heider, field explanation
-attributional processes are a function of perceptual experience
-the actor is the most salient (obvious and animate) part of the scene
-actor is focus of attention so they become focus for an explanation
-background factors become overlooked
support for heider field explanation for ignoring dispositional factors
Rholes and Pryor
-got pp to refocus attention onto situation (rather than actor)
-this reduced attribution error
-increased chance to make situational attributions
other explanations than the correspondence bias
-developmental factors: dispositional explanations take time to develop in children, if not seen in younger vs older children, it may be down to function of perceptual process (kassin and pryor)
-cross cultural factors: not universal, common in western cultures
miller research
-scenarios of pro/anti social behaviour presented to middle class americans or indian hindu pp
-americans more likely to provide dispositional causes
-tendency to attribute dispositionally increased with age
-indian hindus less likely to attribute dispositional cause
-cultural influence seen in fundamental attribution error (FAE)
nisbett and ross research
-role of language in attributional bias
-in english lang, actor and action often depicted in same terms
-(easier to express actor and action than actor and situation)
moore research
differential forgetting
-asked to recall behaviour of other people and causes at diff time points after target event
-people have tendency to forget situational factors more readily than dispositional ones
does fundamental attribution error (FAE) have an adaptive role
fiske and taylor
-if a person acts in a particular way they are likely to act in same way in future
-predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour
what is the actor observer effect
jones and nisbett
-extension of fundamental attributional error FAE/correspondence bias
-observer explains other persons behaviour as being dispositional
-when observer explains own behaviour, indiv attribute to situational cause
perceptual focus explanation (field)
-actor more salient than background
-when explaining own behaviour, we cannot see ourselves but we see the situation so this becomes the focus
storms evidence for perceptual focus explanation
-video cameras to reverse perceptual field of actors and observers
-2 people have convo across a table
-each actor watched by observer and video cameras
-used video recordings to change perspective of actors and observers so actors see themselves and observers see perspective of actor
-actors now attribute behaviour to disposition and observers explain actor with situational factors (reversed!)
information explanations
fiske and taylor
-actors know their own motives, past behaviour, context of situ
-greater awareness increases likelihood of situational attribution
false consensus effect
kelley
-assumed people use consensus info to validate own explanation of social world
BUT
-research shows people do not do this (McArthur)
-people invent their own consensus info
-there is this bias in what indiv perceive as the norm to validate their behaviours
-perception of norm is skewed
research into false consensus effect
Ross, greene and house
-pp asked to walk around campus wearing sandwich board saying ‘eat at joes’
-pp who agreed estimated 62% would also agree
-pp who declined estimated 67% would decline
-pp overestimate proportion of people who would agree with them
-pp create their own consensus (think people are more similar to them than they are)
why do people overestimate similarity of others to themselves
fiske and taylor
-perception of others influenced by the sorts of people we know
-falsely assume people are similar to ourselves
-people we know are in same social circle, family etc
-people seek company of those similar to them
-people similar to us more likely to be salient when trying to recall consensus info
what is opinion salience
-most salient opinions are the ones easily available
-people tend to NOT consider alternative opinions
-people falsely assume people share same opinions
-considering alternatives reduces false consensus effect (marks and miller)
what is self esteem enhancing
-we are motivated to see ourselves as good/typical
-this maintains self esteem
-we falsely attribute our attitudes/beliefs to others to maintain self esteem
what are self serving biases in attributions
attributional distortions that protect or enhance self esteem or the self concept hogg and vaughn
two types of self serving bias
1.self enhancing bias (credit themself for success)
2.self protecting bias (indiv might have failed so attribute cause of failure to something other than themselves)
(aims to protect self esteem)
self protecting bias
miller and ross
-people will accept blame for failure if likely to have future control over the cause e.g revise harder to do better on test next time
campbell and fairey
-people very high or low in self esteem react diff to failure
-regardless of self esteem people take credit for success
-high self esteem = attribute failures to situation
-low self esteem = attribute failure to themselves
explanation for self enhancing bias
miller and ross
-people tend to work harder in things they expect to succeed in
-where people succeed, they attribute the success to the work/effort put in
self serving bias at group level
-ultimate attribution error (boost esteem of in group)
-pettigrew: out group vs in group
-in group attribute success to disposition e.g talented players
-when group fails, attribute failure situationally e.g state of pitch
-out group succeeds = in group explains due to situational factors e.g luck
-out group fails = in group attribute disposition e.g rubbish players
hewstone and ward
-group serving biases in malaysia
-used vignettes to depict desirable/ undesirable behaviours
-vignettes identify actors as either malaysian or chinese
-pp asked to provide explanation for actor behaviour
-attributed by malaysian pp to disposition than for chinese actor
-undesirable behaviour by malay actor attributed to situation more than chinese actor
why do group serving biases occur
automaticity explanations
-stereotypes
-expectancy consistent behaviour = people attribute to disposition
-expectancy inconsistent = people attribute to external factors
self esteem explanations
social identity theory (tajfel and turner)
-in group members boost self esteem from group serving biases
-maintains positive group identity with favourable comparison to out group
