Social Psychology WK 4 - Bias and attributions

Survivorship bias

Proposed by Abraham Wald, who suggested bomber planes should be reinforced where bullets do not hit them as much (but are more critical areas of the plane) whereas everyone else suggested that they should reinforce the areas that are hit the most (but are less important as the plane is still functional without it)

Suggests people tend to ignore important areas as they focus on what there is rather than what there isn’t

Reflects publisher bias where publishers tend to prefer papers with significant findings rather than null findings

Confirmation bias

Tendency to look for information that aligns with one’s pre-existing beliefs

Leads to biased interpretations and memory

Unconscious

Cherry picking

Choosing data/information that aligns with one’s beliefs/wanted findings

Evidence suppression

Conscious

Biased thinking

Systematic, often unconscious lapses in judgement or thinking which stray away from the rational, resulting in distorted perceptions of reality

Attribution theory

Ways we explain other people’s behaviour - Heider et al (1958)

We have 2 primary needs:

• A need to form a coherent view of the world

• A need to have control of our environment

We tend to attribute causality as it ascribes meaning to the world and determines clarity and predictability, thereby reducing uncertainty

Locus of causality

Internal (personal) attributions - attributing behaviours to the person (dispositional)

External (situational) attributions - attributions behaviours to the situational (situational)

Stability and controllability

Weiner (1982) added 2 dimenions to the Locus of causality:

• Stable vs unstable (permanent vs temporary)

• Controllable vs uncontrollable

Fundamental Attribution Error

Assuming others’ behaviour is due to dispositional factors (their personal characteristics)

Napolitan & Goetals (1979) presented a friendly/unfriendly confederate to participants

• Half were told she was behaving naturally, other half were told she was instructed how to behave

• Ratings between when she was ‘behaving naturally’ vs instructed to act did not change - they still rated her similarly friendly or unfriendly

  • Suggests even with understanding of situational factors, we still tend to attribute characteristics dispositionally for other people

Perceptual Salience

When the person observed is the most perceptually salient, internal attributions become more accessible

Taylor & Fiske (1975) - 6 observes watched 2 actors have a conversation and were asked to determine who had the most impact in the conversation

• Observers tended to say that the actor they were facing had the most impact in the conversation

• Suggests we ignore other factors we are not paying attention to

Spousal attributions

Fincham & O’Leary (1983)

• Happy marriages tended to rate positive characteristics as internal attributions (‘they’re a good person’) whereas negative characteristics were seen as external attributions (‘they had a bad day’)

• Unhappy marriages tended to rate positive characteristics as external attributions (‘they’re only nice because they had a good day’) whereas negative characteristics were seen as internal attributions (‘they’re a bad person’)

Suggests our attributions depend on someone’s likeability

Actor-observer bias

The tendency to explain others’ behaviour by dispositional factors but explain our own behaviour by situational factors

Storms (1973) had 2 actors having a conversation while 2 observers watched them

• They all then debated whether what the actors said was reflective of a stable personality trait

• The actors emphasised situational factors for explanations, while observers emphasised dispositional attributions

• When actors watched a tape of themselves, they tended to used dispositional attributions

Suggests we only see our situation as we can rarely see ourselves, explaining our tendency to look at situational factors, and others dispositional

Universality of attributions

There are cultural differences in how people use attributions

• In collectivist cultures, people tend to explain behaviours using situational attributions

• In individualistic cultures, people tend to use dispositional attributions (dispositional bias)