Social Psychology - Attribution

Automatic & Controlled Thinking

  • Automatic (System 1): Fast, intuitive, unintentional, based on gut feelings.
  • Controlled (System 2): Slower, reason-based, requires conscious effort.
  • Cultures emphasizing self-expression encourage System 1, while those valuing self-control cultivate System 2.
  • Both systems are used in all cultures, adapting to the situation.

Analytical vs. Holistic Thinking

  • Analytical thinking: Separates things into categories, focusing on some at the expense of others.
  • Holistic thinking: Considers context and relations between foreground and background.
  • Individualistic cultures lean towards analytical thinking, while collectivistic cultures favor holistic thinking.

Cognitive Biases

  • Cognitive biases are tendencies to think based on subjective perceptions rather than objective probabilities.
  • Reasons for using biases: informational overload and incomplete information.

Heuristics

  • Mental shortcuts or 'rules of thumb' for quick conclusions.
    • Availability heuristic: Judging based on easily recalled information.
    • Representativeness heuristic: Classifying by comparing to prototypical cases.
    • Anchoring and adjustment heuristic: Approximating based on an initial anchor and then adjusting.

Heider’s Attribution Theory

  • People act as 'naive' scientists, understanding others by observing actions.
  • Internal (dispositional) attribution: Cause of events attributed to the person's intentions, attitudes, or character.
  • External (situational) attribution: Cause of events attributed to the circumstances.
  • Correspondent inference theory: Association between behavior and psychological traits.

Covariation Theory

  • Factors determining internal vs. external attribution:
    • Consensus: How others respond in the same situation.
    • Distinctiveness: How distinctive the behavior is.
    • Consistency: Whether the person always responds the same to the same situation.
  • Internal attributions: low consensus, low distinctiveness, high consistency.
  • Situational attributions: high consensus, high distinctiveness, high consistency.

Fundamental Attribution Error

  • Tendency to favor internal attributions over external ones when explaining others' behavior.
  • Actor-observer difference: We attribute our own actions to the situation (external) but others' actions to their disposition (internal).
  • Self-serving biases: Explaining our successes internally and failures externally, the reverse for others.

Cultural Influences on Attribution

  • The fundamental attribution error is more prevalent in Western countries.
  • Collectivistic cultures (e.g., South and East Asia) tend to formulate more external attributions.
  • Cultural context influences attributional styles; not innate.
  • Bicultural individuals may shift attributions based on activated cultural identities.

Two-Step Process of Attribution

  • Initially, focus on the person (internal attribution), then, if motivated/able, consider the context (revise for external attribution).
  • This relates to automatic (initial internal attribution) vs. controlled processing (considering context).