PSY234 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Representativeness Heuristic, Belief Perseverance, Daniel Kahneman
2 Jun 2018
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Week 10 Lecture: Attributions
Lecture outline –
• Attribution theories
o Naïve scientist – Heider (1958)
o Correspondent inference – Jones and Davis (1965)
o Covariation – Kelly (1967)
• Biases in attribution
o The fundamental attribution error
o Actor-observer effect
Making attributions:
• Attribution is the process by which we make inferences about the causes of
behaviour or events
• Naïve scientist (Heider, 1958)
o Characterises people as using rational, scientific-like, cause-effect
analyses to understand their world
• E.g. we look at someone sitting next to us in the lecturer, they are smiling –
are they romantically interested in me? Will I make an attribution that this
person likes me?
• We make these attributions so we know our strengths and weaknesses for
future, and can also predict other people
Naïve scientist –
• Three principles according to Heider:
o Behaviour is motivated – it doesn’t just happen randomly
o We make attributions to predict and control
o Two kinds of attributions
▪ Internal (dispositional e.g. personality)
▪ External (situational e.g. environment/ social pressure)
• Misattribution – mistakes about making attributions; if you get it wrong and
attributed it to an internal cause when it’s external
• Attributional styles – i.e. a more positive style is more external, stable
Correspondent inference –
• Correspondent inference (Jones and Davis 1965);
o An inference that behaviour corresponds to, or is indicative of, a stable
personal characteristic
• Preference for correspondent inferences – we prefer to make these kinds of
inferences as it helps us predict behaviour
• Other plausible reasons reduce correspondence – someone is smiling; could be
smiling at somebody else – you wouldn’t make a correspondent inference
Covariation model –
• Limits to correspondent inference – tends to be restricted to single
observations; doesn’t take into account other aspects
• Kelly’s (1967) covariation model
o Multiple observation points
o External and internal attributions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Covariation principle:
o People assign the cause of a behaviour to the factor that covaries most
closely with the behaviour
• E.g. – why does your friend rave about the class?
o External and internal attribution → look at consensus, distinctiveness
and consistency
o Internal attribution → low in consensus i.e. hardly everyone raves
about the class, low in distinctiveness i.e. your friend raves about all
classes, high in consistency i.e. your friend has raved about the class
on many occasions
o External attribution → high in consensus i.e. everyone raves about
class, high in distinctiveness i.e. your friend does not rave about many
other classes, high in consistency
The fundamental attribution error –
• The tendency to make internal attributions over external attributions in
explaining the behaviour of others
o Also called the correspondence bias
• Quiz game (Ross et al. 1977)
o Quizmaster vs. contestant
o Ratings of general knowledge
o Contestant thinks that the quizmaster is smart – fundamental
attribution error
• Castros speech (Jones & Harris, 1967)
o Subject read speeches about Fidel Castro, ostensibly written by other
students
o The speeches were either pro or anti Castro
o Subject told that writers either freely chose to write the speech or
instructed to do so
o When they were told that it was a freely chosen speech, ratings were
majority pro-Castro, same with the stance assigned
o Participants inferred the essayist’s attitude based on the opinions
expressed in the essay, even when the stance taken in the essay was
assigned
Why does this occur?
• Desire for predictability and control → attribute it to the individual
• Perceptual salience
o Taylor and Fiske (1975) – they had participants come in and have a
conversation, two participants talking to each other, other participants
sitting behind each participants having a different perceptual view.
o Participant facing was much more controlled in the situation, believed
that person was driving convo
• Implications – it’s their fault; they wanted/chose to do that
Actor-Observer Effect:
• The tendency to attribute our own behaviours externally and other’s behaviour
internally
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture outline : attribution theories, na ve scientist heider (1958, correspondent inference jones and davis (1965, covariation kelly (1967, biases in attribution, the fundamental attribution error, actor-observer effect. Will i make an attribution that this person likes me: we make these attributions so we know our strengths and weaknesses for future, and can also predict other people. Na ve scientist : three principles according to heider, behaviour is motivated it doesn"t just happen randomly, we make attributions to predict and control, two kinds of attributions. The fundamental attribution error : the tendency to make internal attributions over external attributions in explaining the behaviour of others, also called the correspondence bias, quiz game (ross et al. Implications it"s their fault; they wanted/chose to do that. Informational differences access to special info on what causes our behaviour, others seeing us do not have access to that information: e. g. late for work due to external forces (traffic); internal attribution tardy person.
