Chapter 5

Question 1

Causal attribution

Answer 1

Linking an event to a cause; the process people use to explain behavior

Question 2

Explanatory style

Answer 2

A person’s habitual way of explaining events, explained across three dimensions

Question 3

3 dimensions of explanatory style

Answer 3

1. Internal / external: What’s responsible?
2. Stable / unstable: When will it happen?
3. Global / specific: Which areas are relevant?

Question 4

Counterfactual statements

Answer 4

Thoughts of what might have, could have, or should have happened
*Implicitly posits a cause

Question 5

Emotional amplification

Answer 5

Increase in emotional reaction to an event depends on how easy it is to imagine the event not happening

Question 6

What does the Plane Crash Study illustrate?

Answer 6

• Emotional Amplification
• Participants were asked what amount of compensation should the man’s family get. When the man died CLOSER TO SAFETY, the participants asked to give MORE compensation, even though the results are the same (that the man didn’t arrive to safety).

Question 7

Most people instinctively choose ____ causes to address their mistakes, because if a behavior seems ____ it feels more ____.

Answer 7

External; Uncontrollable; Forgivable

Question 8

We use the ____ ____ to determine whether causes are internal or external, which is the idea that…

Answer 8

Covariation principle; Behavior should be attributed to potential causes that occur along side the observed behavior

Question 9

Three aspects of the covariation principle

Answer 9

Consensus, Distinctiveness, Consistency

Question 10

Covariation Principle: Consensus

Answer 10

Do most people act the same as Person A in that situation?

Question 11

Covariation Principle: Distinctiveness

Answer 11

Does Person A act that way only in that particular situation?

Question 12

Covariation Principle: Consistency

Answer 12

Does Person A act in the same way in the same situation at other points in time?

Question 13

High consensus + High distinctiveness =

Answer 13

External

Question 14

Low consensus + Low distinctiveness =

Answer 14

Internal

Question 15

Low ____ indicates that the cause of the behavior is UNKNOWN.

Answer 15

Consistency

Question 16

Situational Attribution

Answer 16

External cause; Stems from the SITUATION and not the individual

Question 17

Dispositional attribution

Answer 17

Internal cause; Stems from the INDIVIDUAL and not the situation.

Question 18

Discounting principle

Answer 18

We’re uncertain whether a specific cause produced a behavior if there are other plausible causes for the behavior
Ex. The squirrel is approaching you. Does it want your food or want to bite you?

Question 19

Augmentation principle

Answer 19

We’re more certain that a specific cause produced a behavior if other causes are present that should have prevented that behavior.
Ex. I don’t have food, therefore the squirrel must be wanting to bite me and make me leave.

Question 20

Self-serving attributional bias

Answer 20

People tend to attribute their failures to circumstances and their successes to their traits or effort
*20% victories to external elements, 47% of defeats to external elements

Question 21

Self-serving attribution

Answer 21

Blaming external factors for negative events

Question 22

Why do we fall prey to Self-serving attribution?

Answer 22

• Motivated cognition: We want to feel better about ourselves
• Connections: We succeed due to our efforts and fail despite our efforts

Question 23

Fundamental Attribution Error

Answer 23

The tendency to explain other’s behaviors through dispositional rather than situational factors

Question 24

What does the altruism interview study illustrate?

Answer 24

Even when we KNOW the situation, we still attribute to disposition

Question 25

Fidel Castro study is a study looking at the …

Answer 25

FAE

Question 26

Just-world hypothesis

Answer 26

The belief that people get what they deserve in life and got what they deserve
*We want to believe that there is karma in the world

Question 27

FAE is often ____ and happens automatically, but can be overturned when people ____ their initial judgement

Answer 27

Instinctive; Reconsider
*More cognition devoted to judgement = less FAE

Question 28

Consequences of FAE

Answer 28

Overestimating our judgement of people’s character and prevent us from finding the best possible person for the job

Question 29

Why is FAE so prevalent?

Answer 29

• We don’t bother reevaluating our initial judgement
• We often only see certain people in certain contexts

Question 30

Actor-Observer Bias

Answer 30

The difference in attribution based on whether the actor or the observer is making the attribution (FAE meets self-serving attribution)
*Part of why how YOU see yourself may not match how OTHERS see you.

Question 31

Causes of the actor-observer bias

Answer 31

• Motivated cognition
• Transparency of our internal states
• Opacity of others’ internal states
• Culture

Question 32

Perceptual judgement neuroimaging study

Answer 32

Examine the activation of frontoaprietal area (associated with difficult judgement)
- East Asians had more activation when ignoring context
- Westerners had more activation when attending to context