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The fundamental attribution error

The fundamental attribution error. What is it Tendency to overestimate influence of dispositional factors when judging others Why you get it Selective exposure (again) Perceptual salience Different processes underlying attributions dispositional  automatic Situational  controlled .

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The fundamental attribution error

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  1. The fundamental attribution error • What is it • Tendency to overestimate influence of dispositional factors when judging others • Why you get it • Selective exposure (again) • Perceptual salience • Different processes underlying attributions • dispositional  automatic • Situational  controlled

  2. Two famous demonstrations • Jones and Harris (1967) • Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz (1977)

  3. “The College-Bowl Study”(Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz, 1977). Quiz-master Contestant Observers contestants quiz-masters PEOPLE DOING THE RATINGS high intelligence low intelligence

  4. Stages of social perception Observe specific behavior Identification (encoding) Inferences about other traits Inferences about the causes of behavior (attribution) Automatic dispositional attribution Controlled situational “correction”—but only if perceiver has ability and motivation

  5. The “spotlight” effect (Gilovich, Medvec, & Savitsky, 2000)

  6. Ideology and attribution • Do conservatives and liberals tend to make different types of attributions? (e.g. Zucker & Weiner, 1993) • In some domains (e.g. perceptions of poverty) conservatives are significantly more likely to make dispositional attributions compared to liberals • Flattering vs. unflattering portraits of liberals and conservatives • The “bad conservative” framing • The “bad liberal” framing

  7. Belief in a just world (Lerner, 1980) • Good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people • Two ways of conceptualizing • Cultural belief system • Individual difference variable low high

  8. Belief in a Just World and RiskLambert, Burroughs, & Nguyen, 1999 • Belief in a just world • But we find only weakly related to perceived risk—WHY? • Buffering hypothesis! • Maybe just world beliefs “only matter” when world is viewed as “threatening” in the first place • Who sees world as threatening? • High RWA

  9. Right-wing authoritarianism Belief in a just world World perceived as a dangerous, scary place? Personal buffer against threat? YES NO HIGH PERCEIVED RISK YES NO LOW PERCEIVED RISK

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