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Attribution
Attributions are inferences that people make about the causes of
events and behavior. People make attributions in order to understand their
experiences. Attributions strongly influence the way people interact with others.
Types of Attributions
Researchers classify attributions along two dimensions: internal vs.
external and stable vs. unstable. By combining these two dimensions of
attributes, researchers can classify a particular attribution as being
internal-stable, internal-unstable, external-stable, or external-unstable.
Internal vs. External
Attribution theory proposes that the attributions people make about
events and behavior can be classed as either internal or external. In an
internal, or dispositional, attribution,
people infer that an event or a person’s behavior is due to personal factors
such as traits, abilities, or feelings. In an external, or
situational, attribution, people infer that a person’s behavior
is due to situational factors.
Stable vs. Unstable
Researchers also distinguish between stable and unstable attributions.
When people make a stable attribution, they infer that an event
or behavior is due to stable, unchanging factors. When making an
unstable attribution, they infer that an event or behavior
is due to unstable, temporary factors.
Attribution Bias
When people make an attribution, they are guessing about the causes of
events or behaviors. These guesses are often wrong. People have systematic
biases, which lead them to make incorrect attributions. These biases include the
fundamental attribution error, the self-serving bias, and the just world
hypothesis.
The Fundamental Attribution Error
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to
attribute other people’s behavior to internal factors such as personality
traits, abilities, and feelings. The fundamental attribution error is also
called the correspondence bias, because it is assumed that other people’s
behavior corresponds to their personal attributes. When explaining their own
behavior, on the other hand, people tend to attribute it to situational
factors.
The Self-Serving Bias
The self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute
successes to internal factors and failures to situational factors. This bias
tends to increase as time passes after an event. Therefore, the further in
the past an event is, the more likely people are to congratulate themselves
for successes and to blame the situation for failures.
The Just World Hypothesis
The just world hypothesis refers to the need to believe
that the world is fair and that people get what they deserve. The just world
hypothesis gives people a sense of security and helps them to find meaning
in difficult circumstances.
People are less generous about other people than about themselves.
Other people’s successes tend to be attributed to situational factors and
their failures to internal factors.
Unfortunately, the just world hypothesis also leads to a tendency to
blame the victim. When something tragic or terrible happens to someone,
people often reassure themselves by deciding that the person must have done
something to provoke or cause the event.
Cultural Influences on Attribution Style
Research suggests that cultural values and norms affect the way people
make attributions. In particular, differences in attribution style exist
between individualist and collectivist cultures. People in individualist
cultures place a high value on uniqueness and independence, believe in the
importance of individual goals, and define themselves in terms of
personal attributes. People in collectivist cultures, on the other hand,
place a high value on conformity and interdependence, believe in the
importance of group goals, and define themselves in terms of their
membership in groups. North American and Western European
cultures tend to be individualistic, while Asian, Latin American, and
African cultures tend to be collectivist.
People in collectivist cultures tend to be less susceptible to the
fundamental attribution error than people in individualist cultures. People from
collectivist cultures are more likely to believe that a person’s behavior is due
to situational demands rather than to personal attributes. People from
collectivist cultures are also less susceptible to the self-serving bias.
The Self-Effacing Bias
Research suggests that people who are from a collectivist
culture, such as the Japanese culture, tend to have a
self-effacing bias when making attributions. That is,
they tend to attribute their successes to situational factors rather
than to personal attributes, and, when they fail, they blame themselves
for not trying hard enough.
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