Attributions and Cognitive Biases of the Self Chapter 4

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Attributions and Cognitive Biases of the Self
(Chapter 4)
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HOW do people make attributions?

• Example What caused my friend to enjoy her date?
• Kelleys Model of Attributions we look at three
  types of information

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HOW do people make attributions?

• Distinctiveness information is the event unique
  to this object, or does it happen with all
  objects?
• Does my friend like all her dates or just this
  one?
• Tells us if the cause might be in the object (the
  guy)

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HOW do people make attributions?

• Consensus information is the event unique to
  this actor, or do all actors behave in the same
  way?
• Do other people like this guy, or is my friend
  the only one?
• Tells us if the cause might be in the actor (my
  friend)

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HOW do people make attributions?

• Consistency information Does this relationship
  between actor and object occur in other
  situations, or only in this one?
• Do her dates with him always go well, or just
  that one?
• Tells us if the cause might be in the situation

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Example

• Cheryl goes out with John and has a great time.
  I knew another girl who went out with John and
  she also had a great time. Cheryl has been out
  with other guys, and she never had a great time
  before, but she did this time. In fact, she's
  been out with John a few times, and she had a
  great time every time. Is the cause Cheryl,
  John, or the context?
• High distinctiveness, High consensus, High
  consistency
• Cause is in the object (John)

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Example

• Cheryl goes out with John and has a great time.
  I know a few people who have been out with John,
  but none of them had a great time. Cheryl
  actually has a good time whenever she goes out
  with anyone. In fact, she's been out with John a
  few times, and she had a great time every time.
  Is the cause Cheryl, John, or the context?
• Low distinctiveness, Low consensus, High
  consistency
• Cause is in the actor (Cheryl)

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Example

• Cheryl goes out with John and has a great time. I
  knew another girl who went out with John and she
  did not have a good time. Cheryl has been out
  with other guys, and she never had a great time
  before, but she did this time. In fact, she's
  been out with John a few times, and she never had
  a great time before, but she did this time. Is
  the cause Cheryl, John, or the context?
• High distinctiveness, Low consensus, Low
  consistency
• Cause is in the situation

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Summary

• This model of attributions is quite effortful
• People rarely collect all this info when making
  attributions

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Shortcuts When Making Attributions

• Correspondence bias people generally believe
  that peoples actions correspond to their
  dispositions (personality).

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Correspondence Bias

• Pro-Castro essay
• Told person either chose or was forced to write
  essay
• In both cases, participants made internal
  attribution
• Quiz Show Study
• ½ played Alex Trebek ½ played contestant
• All rated the Trebek player more intelligent

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Shortcuts When Making Attributions

• Fundamental Attribution Error the tendency to
  overestimate the extent to which peoples
  behaviors are due to internal factors and to
  underestimate the role of external factors.

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Why do these errors occur?

• Salience Whatever is foremost in our view
  (whatever is salient) is thought to be the cause.
• Video study (Storms)
• Criminal confessions

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Why do these errors occur?

• Actor-Observer Bias - the tendency to explain
  others behavior as due to dispositions and our
  own behavior as due to the situation.

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• WHAT Do We Think About Ourselves?

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Unrealistically Positive Views of the Self

• Better-than-average-effect the belief that we
  are better than the majority of others on many
  attributes
• Ratings of positive and negative attributes
  (Brown, 1986)
• Who is going to heaven?

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Unrealistically Positive Views of the Self

• False uniqueness effect underestimating how
  common our abilities and desirable aspects are
  we think our positive qualities are unique
• E.g., no one else would pick up litter

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Unrealistically Positive Views of the Self

• False consensus effect overestimating how common
  our opinions and undesirable aspects are we
  think our negative qualities are common
• E.g., everyone cheats on taxes

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Exaggerated Perceptions of Control

• Lottery ticket study
• ½ given ticket, ½ could choose ticket
• When asked to sell ticket, those who chose wanted
  4 times more money
• Throwing dice

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Unrealistic Optimism

• Optimistic bias people tend to believe that they
  are more likely than others to experience
  positive events and less likely to experience
  negative events.
• Smoking and cancer studies
• Birth control studies

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Unrealistic Optimism

• Successful marriages study
• We believe our attributes lead to good outcomes