Nisbett and Wilson, 1977

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Nisbett and Wilson, 1977

• Word pairs to memorize
• Answer my question as fast as you can
• 1/2 class

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Nisbett and Wilson, 1977

• Surf...............Moon
• Beach............Shells
• Ocean............Waves
• Surf................Moon
• As fast as you can....

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Nisbett and Wilson, 1977

• Everyone................Group
• Team......................Organization
• Crowd.....................Workers
• Everyone................Group
• As Fast as you can...write it down

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Wilson, 1985

• Say enjoy task...spend more time on it
• More attractive they say landscape is...more
  pleasure revealed in facial exp
• The happier said they were with date...the longer
  the relationship lasted
• UNLESS ASKED TO ANALYZE REASONS FIRST

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Millar and Tesser (1989)

• Cognitive behaviors (business investing
• Analyzing reasons may increase accuracy
• Affective behaviors (relationships, art)
• Focusing on your feelings may be more helpful
• HOW DOES THIS FIT WITH NISBETT AND WILSON?

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Beliefs and Judgment
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Attribution

• We have a strong need to explain what is going on
  around us.
• Attributions are our best guess as to what is
  going on.
• Negative events
• Unexpected events

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Why are attributions important?

• 1) Prediction and Control
• 2) Determine feelings, behaviors, attitudes
• ex. Person bumps you
• 3) Expectations about the future
• ex. Attributions of success and failure

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Attribution

• Ex. Uptown at the C.I. - Person says hi
• Attributions individual makes about situation
  critical
• Does the person like you?
• Are they just being polite?
• Did they mistake you for someone else?
• Do they just like your khakis?
• Are they rude?

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Attribution

• Patty Hearst Story

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Lewinian Equation

• B S D
• Did Patty hearst rob the bank b/c of
  dispositional qualities
• Discounting Principle If S B are equal,
  behavior should be discounted in making
  dispositional attributions about a person.

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Attribution

• Patty Hearst Story - Our interpretation
  (Attributions) as jurors are critical.
• Did she rob the bank b/c
• criminal
• doesnt care about others
• was in love with S.L.A. leader
• Was tortured and trapped in closet for 57 days

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Dispositional versus Situational Attributions
(Heider, 1958)

• Distinguishing between 2 types of attributions
• 1) Dispositional Attribution - Attributing a
  behavior to internal causes
• 2) Situational Attribution - Attributing a
  behavior to external causes

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2 Models for how we should make attributions

• 1) Correspondent inference theory.
• Jones and Davis (1965)
• When does behavior correspond to
  intentions/dispositions

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When Should We Make Correspondent Inferences?

• 1) Number of Effects -
• Refers to the number of possible explanations for
  a behavior
• The more the effects?
• The less effects?
• Ex. Why did Kevin go to the recycling rally?
• Correspondent inferenceWhat would it be?

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When Should We Make Correspondent Inferences?

• 2) Social Desirability - The less desirable the
  behavior, the stronger the inference can be.
• Ex.

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When Should We Make Correspondent Inferences?

• 3) Expectancy - If behavior is expected in a
  given situation, it should not lead to a
  correspondent inference.
• Ex. A friendly salesperson
• Ex. Within context of birthday party, say you
  love the gift.

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• Timing of the next exam...

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Models for how we should make attributions

• 2) Covariation Model of Causal Attribution
• Kelley (1973)
• Looks at how we determine causes of events from a
  slice of behavior

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Kellys (1973) Covariation Model

• Interested in 3 types of information
• 1) Distinctiveness Information- How does the same
  person react to different info?
• 2) Consensus Information - How did other people
  react?
• 3) Consistency Information - What happens to the
  behavior at another time when person and stimulus
  the same.

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Kelleys Covariation Model

• Person raves about a film

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Kellys (1973) Covariation Model

• If Person is the cause
• Distinctiveness Low (Rave _at_ every film)
• Consensus Low (others)
• Consistency high (always this film)

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Kellys (1973) Covariation Model

• If the stimulus
• Distinctiveness High (Doesnt rave about other
  films)
• Consensus High (Others rave)
• Consistency High (Always rave about this one)
• Ex.

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Jones and Davis Correspondent Inference Theory
and Kellys (1973) Covariation Model

• These theories assume that humans are
  rationalThis is frequently not the case.
• GROUPS

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The Fundamental Attribution Error/Correspondence
Bias

• The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)- Tendency
  for observers to underestimate situational
  influences and overestimate dispositional
  influences upon others behavior.

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The Fundamental Attribution Error/Correspondence
Bias

• Jones and Harris (1967)
• Essay on Fidel Castro
• I.V. - Choice (choice versus no-choice)
• I.V. - Essay (Pro-Castro versus Anti-Castro)
• D.V. - The degree to which individuals think the
  essayist is pro - or anti-Castro.
• BOARD

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Results (Essayist with No-Choice
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• 2 Volunteers (Must have thick skin)

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FAE

• Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz (1977)
• Questioner and Contestant Scenario
• Randomly choose Q C
• 10 questions, 4 correct
• D.V. General knowledge of Q C

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The Fundamental Attribution Error/Correspondence
Bias

• Real Life Examples
• I am not Spock
• What are your professors like (situational
  constraint classroom)
• Job interviews
• Ex. GROUPS

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Why do we make the FAE?

• The impact of Salience on the FAE
• Salience - Refers to something that stands out
  grabs our attention.
• Diagram...

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Attribution is matter of perspective

• Observing others - Other salient causal,
  therefore...
• For ourselves - Situation salient causal,
  therefore...

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How can this be applied to real life?

• Lassiter and Videotaped Confessions
• 2 Murder Trials
• Confession is central
• I.V. - Camera focus
• D.V. - Voluntariness
• D.V. - Verdict
• RESULTS?

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Why does the FAE occur?

• Quatrone (1982)
• 3 Stage Model
• 1) Identification - What is the person doing?
• 2) Dispositional Attribution -
• 3) Situational Correction - (Anchoring
  Adjustment)

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Why does the FAE occur?

• Gilbert, Pelham, and Krull
• 1) Identification
• 2) Dispositional Attribution
• 3) Effortful Situational Correction

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Explaining the mechanisms behind the Fundamental
Attribution Error

• I.V. - Videotape (Anxiety provoking subtitles
  hidden secrets, sexual fantasies versus Mundane
  subtitles Ideal vacation, favorite hobbies)
• I.V. - Load (No-load versus Load) -
• BOARD

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Results (Not Actual) How dispositionally anxious
is the person in the video?
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Is the fundamental attribution error actually bad?

• Evolutionarily can you think of any benefit to
  making dispositional attributions automatically,
  and then correcting for the situation in a
  controlled manner?

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Attribution

• Based on the FAE, what do you think the jurors
  decided in the Patty Hearst case?

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Any questions?

• Correspondent inference theory
• Covariation Model
• The fundamental attribution error
• Explanations for why we make the fundamental
  attribution error.

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Questions for Class

• Hotel (Football playoffs and convention)
• Quiet/studious (Li vs. La)
• 65 versus 10

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Heuristics

• When we make judgments we often use heuristics.
• Heuristics - Strategies or rules of thumb that
  allow us to make rapid judgments.

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The Representativeness Heuristic

• Strategy of judging the likelihood of things by
  how well they represent or match particular
  prototypes.

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Availability Heuristic

• Judge the likelihood of things in terms of their
  accessibility in memory.
• Estimate frequencies by ease of remembering.
• Ex.

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Anchoring and Adjustment

• Start with a reference point or anchor and then
  you adjust.
• Quatrone (1982)

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Illusory Correlation

• Perception of a relationship where none exists,
  or a perception of a stronger relationship than
  actually exists.

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Gamblers Fallacy

• Guess before each one - Flip coin - THTTT
• 50-50 chance, so 1/2 class should think heads,
  the other half tails. However, tend to think a
  relationship exists (illusory corr)
• If a sequence of events does not look random we
  will perceive a relationship that does not exist.