Social-Attributional Biases

Question 1

Actor–observer bias

Answer 1

The tendency for explanations of other individuals’ behaviors to overemphasize the influence of their personality and underemphasize the influence of their situation (see also Fundamental attribution error), and for explanations of one’s own behaviors to do the opposite (that is, to overemphasize the influence of our situation and underemphasize the influence of our own personality).

Question 2

Authority bias

Answer 2

The tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion.[78]

Question 3

Defensive attribution hypothesis

Answer 3

Attributing more blame to a harm-doer as the outcome becomes more severe or as personal or situational similarity to the victim increases.

Question 4

Egocentric bias

Answer 4

Occurs when people claim more responsibility for themselves for the results of a joint action than an outside observer would credit them with.

Question 5

Extrinsic incentives bias

Answer 5

An exception to the fundamental attribution error, when people view others as having (situational) extrinsic motivations and (dispositional) intrinsic motivations for oneself

Question 6

False consensus effect

Answer 6

The tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which others agree with them.[79]

Question 7

Forer effect (aka Barnum effect)

Answer 7

The tendency to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. For example, horoscopes.

Question 8

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 8

The tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior[57] (see also actor-observer bias, group attribution error, positivity effect, and negativity effect).[80]

Question 9

Group attribution error

Answer 9

The biased belief that the characteristics of an individual group member are reflective of the group as a whole or the tendency to assume that group decision outcomes reflect the preferences of group members, even when information is available that clearly suggests otherwise.

Question 10

Halo effect

Answer 10

The tendency for a person’s positive or negative traits to “spill over” from one personality area to another in others’ perceptions of them (see also physical attractiveness stereotype).[81]

Question 11

Illusion of asymmetric insight

Answer 11

People perceive their knowledge of their peers to surpass their peers’ knowledge of them.[82]

Question 12

Illusion of external agency

Answer 12

When people view self-generated preferences as instead being caused by insightful, effective and benevolent agents

Question 13

Illusion of transparency

Answer 13

People overestimate others’ ability to know them, and they also overestimate their ability to know others.

Question 14

Illusory superiority

Answer 14

Overestimating one’s desirable qualities, and underestimating undesirable qualities, relative to other people. (Also known as “Lake Wobegon effect”, “better-than-average effect”, or “superiority bias”.)[83]

Question 15

Ingroup bias

Answer 15

The tendency for people to give preferential treatment to others they perceive to be members of their own groups.

Question 16

Just-world hypothesis

Answer 16

The tendency for people to want to believe that the world is fundamentally just, causing them to rationalize an otherwise inexplicable injustice as deserved by the victim(s).

Question 17

Moral luck

Answer 17

The tendency for people to ascribe greater or lesser moral standing based on the outcome of an event.

Question 18

Naïve cynicism

Answer 18

Expecting more egocentric bias in others than in oneself.

Question 19

Naïve realism

Answer 19

The belief that we see reality as it really is – objectively and without bias; that the facts are plain for all to see; that rational people will agree with us; and that those who don’t are either uninformed, lazy, irrational, or biased.

Question 20

Outgroup homogeneity bias

Answer 20

Individuals see members of their own group as being relatively more varied than members of other groups.[84]

Question 21

Self-serving bias

Answer 21

The tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests (see also group-serving bias).[85]

Question 22

Shared information bias

Answer 22

Known as the tendency for group members to spend more time and energy discussing information that all members are already familiar with (i.e., shared information), and less time and energy discussing information that only some members are aware of (i.e., unshared information).[86]

Question 23

Sociability bias of language

Answer 23

The disproportionally higher representation of words related to social interactions, in comparison to words related to physical or mental aspects of behavior, in most languages. This bias attributed to nature of language as a tool facilitating human interactions. When verbal descriptors of human behavior are used as a source of information, sociability bias of such descriptors emerges in factor-analytic studies as a factor related to pro-social behavior (for example, of Extraversion factor in the Big Five personality traits [57]

Question 24

System justification

Answer 24

The tendency to defend and bolster the status quo. Existing social, economic, and political arrangements tend to be preferred, and alternatives disparaged, sometimes even at the expense of individual and collective self-interest. (See also status quo bias.)

Question 25

Trait ascription bias

Answer 25

The tendency for people to view themselves as relatively variable in terms of personality, behavior, and mood while viewing others as much more predictable.

Question 26

Ultimate attribution error

Answer 26

Similar to the fundamental attribution error, in this error a person is likely to make an internal attribution to an entire group instead of the individuals within the group.

Question 27

Worse-than-average effect

Answer 27

A tendency to believe ourselves to be worse than others at tasks which are difficult.[8