Attribution Bias
When people make an attribution, they are guessing about the causes of
events or behaviors. These guesses are often wrong. People have systematic
biases, which lead them to make incorrect attributions. These biases include the
fundamental attribution error, the self-serving bias, and the just world
hypothesis.
The Fundamental Attribution Error
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to
attribute other people’s behavior to internal factors such as personality
traits, abilities, and feelings. The fundamental attribution error is also
called the correspondence bias, because it is assumed that other people’s
behavior corresponds to their personal attributes. When explaining their own
behavior, on the other hand, people tend to attribute it to situational
factors.
Example: Alexis falls asleep in class. Sean attributes her
behavior to laziness. When he fell asleep in class last
week, however, he attributed his own behavior to the
all-nighter he pulled finishing a term paper.
The Self-Serving Bias
The self-serving bias is the tendency to attribute
successes to internal factors and failures to situational factors. This bias
tends to increase as time passes after an event. Therefore, the further in
the past an event is, the more likely people are to congratulate themselves
for successes and to blame the situation for failures.
Example: Chad wins a poetry competition but fails to get the
poem published in a magazine he sent it to. He attributes
his success in the competition to his talent. He attributes
his failure to get it published to bad luck.
The Just World Hypothesis
The just world hypothesis refers to the need to believe
that the world is fair and that people get what they deserve. The just world
hypothesis gives people a sense of security and helps them to find meaning
in difficult circumstances.
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