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
