Ch. 5 - Social Attribution Flashcards
Attribution theory
Define attribution
Explains how people assign causes to events and the effects of these causal assessments
A judgment about what caused someone to behave in a certain way
Explanatory style (optimistic v.s. pessimistic)
Person’s habitual way of explaining events
Pessimistic: internal, stable and global
Optimistic: external, unstable and specific
Covariation model/principle Situational attribution Dispositional attribution Target attribution Problem with covariation model
Behaviour should be attributed to potential causes that covary with the observed behaviour
Low consistency, high/low consensus, high/low distinctiveness
High consistency, low consensus and distinctiveness
High consistency/consensus/distinctiveness
False consensus effect –> assume others respond the same way we do
Causal schema model
Problem with this model
Applies when we only have one instance of the behaviour (people use situational factors to explain behaviour)
Is plausible situational cause exists, we reduce the importance of an internal cause
If a situational cause exists that should have inhibited the behaviour, we enhance the importance of the cause we think is the underlying factor
Fundamental attribution error
Discounting principle
Augmentation principle
Counterfactual thinking
Emotional amplification
Our confidence that a particular cause is responsible for an outcome will decrease if there are other plausible causes
We have a greater confidence that a particular cause is responsible for an outcome if other causes that we imagine would cause a different outcome are present
Considerations of what might/could/should have happened if things had happened differently
Emotional reaction tends to be more intense if the event almost didn’t occur (affected by time and distance)
Defensive attrition
Tendency to blame victims for their misfortune
Self serving attributional bias
The tendency to attribute failure to external circumstances and attribute success to oneself, motivated by desire to maintain self esteem
Fundamental attribution error
The failure to recognize the importance of situational influences on behaviour and to overemphasize the dispositional causes of behaviour
Causes of fundamental attribution error (4)
Just world hypothesis = belief that people get what they deserve in life
Perceptual salience: features of the environment that draw our attention more are more likely to be seen as possible cause of an outcome (people and their dispositions are more eye catching than environmental aspects
Representativeness heuristic: When we observe someone’s behaviour, we automatically characterize that person as having a disposition corresponding for that behaviour
We aren’t great at assessing the validity of our judgments or we explain failure in prediction away
Actor observer differences in attribution
3 reasons for it
Actors are more incline to make situational attributions and observers are more inclined to make dispositional attributions
What needs to be explained is assumed differently by actors vs observers
Actors know what intentions influence their behaviour while observers have to guess
Actors also know if that behaviour is distinctive of them which would merit a situational attribution
2 step model of attribution
First step: automatic assumption that behaviour is caused by disposition
Second step: effortful reflection to also consider situational factors
Culture and attribution
Most of world pays more attention to social situations and people involved in them than Westerners do because Westerners tend to think of themselves more in the context of personal goals/attributes/preferences
Culture and fundamental attribution error
Fundamental attribution error is more pronounced in Westerners than Easterners
Social class and attribution
Lower/working class individuals have attributional tendencies more similar to individuals from interdependent cultures
