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Chapter 5

Social Attribution: Explaining Behavior

Explaining Events

Attribution theory
An

umbrella term used to describe the set of


theoretical accounts of how people assign causes
to the events around them, and the effects of their
causal assessments
Attribution is the process where people use
information to infer causes of behaviors or events
(when and how people ask why questions)
Influences

behavior

immediate emotions and subsequent

From Acts to Dispositions: Inferring


the Causes of Behavior

Causal attribution
Linking

an event to a cause, such as inferring


that a personality trait is responsible for a
behavior
Why does the student sleep in my class?
The

explanation depends on my attribution

The Pervasiveness and Importance


of Causal Attribution

Importance of causal attributions


The

type of attribution made will influence


how you respond to the situation
E.g.,

if your friend cancels plans to get together


with you, thinking your friend must not be feeling
well feels better than thinking your friend no
longer likes you
Emotional reactions and behavior

Explanatory Style and Attribution

Explanatory style
A

persons habitual way of explaining events,


typically assessed along three dimensions:
internal/external, stable/unstable, and
global/specific

Explanatory dimensions
Internal

versus external

Degree

that cause is linked to the self or to the


external situation

Explanatory Style and Attribution


Stable

versus instable

Degree

that the cause is seen as fixed or as


something that is temporary

Global

versus specific

Degree

that the cause is seen as affecting other


domains in life or is restricted to affecting one
specific domain

Explanatory Style and Attribution

Pessimistic attribution style


Internal,

stable, global attributions habitually


made for negative events
Its

my fault; Im never going to be able to;


I am no good at anything

Pessimistic

attribution styles predict lower


grades and poorer physical health later in life

Insert Table 5.1 Here

Explanatory Style and Attribution

Attributions about controllability


An

individuals attributional style has a


powerful effect on that persons long-term
outcomes

Gender and attributional style


Boys

are more likely than girls to attribute


their failures to lack of effort,
Girls are more likely than boys to attribute
their failures to lack of ability

The Processes of Causal Attribution


The attribution process is not random but
follows some predictable pattern.
Functions;

Help

understand the past, illuminate the


present, and predict the future

Kurt Lewin pointed out that behavior is


always a function of both the person and
the situation

Attribution and Covariation

Covariation principle
The

idea that behavior should be attributed to


potential causes that occur along with the
behavior
People try to see if a particular cause and a
particular effect go together across situations
Do

they covary?

Attribution and Covariation

Psychologists believe that three types of


covariation information are particularly
significant
Consensus
A

type of covariation information: what most


people would do in a given situation; that is,
whether most people would behave the same way,
or few or no other people would behave that way

Attribution and Covariation


Distinctiveness
A

type of covariation information: what an


individual does in different situations; that is,
whether the behavior is unique to a particular
situation, or occurs in all situations

Consistency
A

type of covariation information: what an


individual does in a given situation on different
occasions; that is, whether next time, under the
same circumstances, the person would behave the
same or differently

Insert Table 5.2 Here

Attribution and Imagining Alternative Actors


and Outcomes

Prior knowledge about the world allows us


to infer the likely cause of a behavior
Judgments not always based on what
actually happened

What

would happen

Under

different circumstances?
If a different individual was involved?

Attribution and Imagining Alternative Actors


and Outcomes

Discounting principle
The

idea that people should assign reduced


weight to a particular cause of behavior if
other plausible causes might have produced it

Augmentation principle
The

idea that people should assign greater


weight to a particular cause of behavior if
other causes are present that normally would
produce a different outcome

Insert Figure 5.1 Here

Attribution and Imagining Alternative Actors


and Outcomes
Causal attributions can be formed by
comparing real outcomes to imagined
alternatives
Counterfactual thoughts

Thoughts

of what might have, could have, or


should have happened if only something
had occurred differently

Insert Figure 5.2 Here

Attribution and Imagining Alternative


Actors and Outcomes

Emotional amplification
An

increase in an emotional reaction to an


event that is proportional to how easy it is to
imagine the events not happening
May

feel more personally responsible for failure


depending on how easy it is to imagine the
alternative

Attribution and Imagining Alternative Actors


and Outcomes
Counterfactual thinking at the Olympics
Although

it seems counterintuitive, bronze


medalists are often more satisfied with their
accomplishment than silver medalists
Silver medalists may imagine a gold medal as
the alternative
Bronze medalists may imagine receiving no
medal as the alternative
SOCIAL4_Ch05_1_Behind_the_Citation.mov

Attribution and Imagining Alternative Actors


and Outcomes

Another determinant of how easy it is to


imagine an events not happening is
whether it resulted from a routine action or
a departure from the norm

Errors and Biases in Attribution

Our causal attributions are occasionally


subject to predictable errors and biases

The Self-Serving Attributional Bias

Self-serving attributional bias


The

tendency to attribute failure and other


bad events to external circumstances, and to
attribute success and other good events to
oneself
For

instance, athletes may attribute losses to bad


referees but victories to talent and hard work

The Self-Serving Attributional Bias


External attributions
Students tend to make external attributions
for their failures (The questions were
ambiguous; The professor is a sadist)
Internal attributions
Internal attributions for success (The hard
work paid off; Im smart)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhkNVUZ
4fVM

Insert Box 5.1 Here

The Fundamental Attribution Error

Fundamental attribution error


The

failure to recognize the importance of


situational influences on behavior, and the
corresponding tendency to overemphasize the
importance of dispositions on behavior
For

instance, inferences may be made about


someones true personality even when we are
aware that their behavior resulted from an
assigned role

The Actor-Observer Difference


in Causal Attributions

Actor-observer difference
A

difference in attribution based on who is


making the causal assessment: the actor (who
is relatively inclined to make situational
attributions) or the observer (who is relatively
inclined to make dispositional attributions)

The Actor-Observer Difference


in Causal Attributions

Attributions may differ between the person


engaging in a behavior and a person
observing the behavior
The

actor is disposed to explain behavior as due


to the situation
The observer is disposed to explain behavior as
due to dispositional qualities of the actor

The Actor-Observer Difference


in Causal Attributions

Like the fundamental attribution error, the


actor-observer difference has no single
cause
Assumptions

about what needs explaining can


vary for actors and observers
The perceptual salience of the actor and the
surrounding situation is different for the actor
and the observer

The Actor-Observer Difference


in Causal Attributions
Actors

and observers differ in the amount and


kind of information they have about the actor
and the actors behavior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpDU8F1
pnPM

Insert Box 5.3 Here

Culture and Causal Attributions

Much of what psychologists know about


how people understand the behavior of
others is undoubtedly universal

Cultural Differences in Attending to Context

The fundamental attribution error may be


affected by culture
Westerners

generally define themselves in


terms of their relationships with others less
often than do other people throughout the
world
Westerners

think about themselves more in the


context of personal goals, attributes, and
preferences

Cultural Differences in Attending to Context


Non-Westerners

think about themselves more


in terms of the social roles they occupy and
their obligations to other people and
institutions
Emphasize

group autonomy
Prefer situational explanations
Think like social psychologists
More likely to go on to the second step and less
likely to do fundamental attribution error

Insert Figure 5.8 Here

Causal Attribution for Independent


and Interdependent Peoples

Given the pronounced difference between


Asians and Westerners attention to
context, it should come as no surprise to
learn that Asians are more inclined than
Westerners to attribute behavior to the
situation
Westerners

see dispositions and internal


causes, whereas Asians see situations and
contexts

Culture and the Fundamental Attribution Error

The fundamental attribution error is more


widespread and pronounced for
Westerners than for Asians
Westerners

pay little attention to situational


factors in circumstances in which Asians pay
considerable attention to them and grant their
influence

Culture and the Fundamental Attribution Error

Differences in attributions between some


American subcultures
For

instance, Puerto Rican children use fewer


traits when describing themselves than AngloAmerican children
Less

likely to use traits to describe other people

Mexican-Americans

were less likely to make


trait inferences than Anglo-Americans

Priming Culture

For people who are connected to both


independent and interdependent cultures,
attribution styles may change depending
on the cultural context

Priming Culture

Evidence from Hong Kong


Hong

Kong is heavily influenced by both


China and Western countries like the United
States and the United Kingdom

Priming Culture
Residents

of Hong Kong can switch between


independent and interdependent attributions
styles
Made

more dispositional attributions after being


primed with images related to Western culture
Made more situational attributions after being
primed with images related to Chinese culture

Social Class and Attribution

Social class
The

amount of wealth, education, and


occupational prestige individuals and their
families have
Higher

enjoy more wealth, higher education and


prestige

People

from different levels on the


socioeconomic ladder arrive at very different
causal explanations for events
SOCIAL4_Ch05_2_Behind_the_Citation.mov

Dispositions: Fixed or Flexible


Do Asians, Catholics, and people of lower
social class think like social
psychologists, putting great emphasis on
situational determinants of behavior?
Do Westerners, Protestants, and people of
higher social class think like personality
psychologists, putting more emphasis on
dispositional determinants?

Dispositions: Fixed or Flexible

The Big Five dimensions of personality


are the same cross-culturally
For

both interdependent people and


independent people, personalities can be
described along traits of openness to
experience, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism

Beyond the Internal/External Dimension

Everyday causal analysis often requires


people to determine whether a given action
is mainly due to something about the person
involved or to the surrounding situational
context
The

person/situation question is not the only


one we ask, and its not the whole story about
everyday causal analysis
Were

often interested in understanding a persons


intentions

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