Chapter 9: Causal Attribution

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Chapter 9 Causal Attribution

• Social Psychology by Tom Giliovich, Dacher
  Keltner, and Richard Nisbett

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Why Social Psychologists Study Attribution

• attribution - linking a cause to an instance of
  behavior - ones own or that of other people
• 1. The Pervasiveness and Importance of
  Attribution
• 2. Explanatory Style and Attribution
• Explanatory style - a persons habitual way of
  explaining events, typically assessed along three
  dimensions internal/external, stable/unstable,
  and global/specific

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Seligman and colleagues
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Nonverbal Communication

• Nonverbal Communication- an unspoken language of
  expressions and body language
• Basic channels
• facial expressions- reveals current
  moods/feelings
• eye contact- reveals friendliness, shyness,
  aggression
• body language (position, posture, movement)-
  reveals emotional states, status, cultural
  emblems
• touching- reveals affection, interest, dominance,
  caring, threat, aggression

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Facial Expressions of Emotion
Ekman found that 6 facial expressions were
recognized across various cultures
Surprise
Fear
Anger
Happiness
Sadness
Disgust
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Facial Expressions and Social Thought

• Cognitive tuning model (Schwarz, 1990)
• when others smile, we sense that the current
  situation is safe so we process information
  superficially (heuristic processing)
• when others frown, we sense that careful thought
  about their words is required (systematic
  processing)

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The Processes of Causal Attribution

• 1. Attribution and Single-Instance Observation
• Discounting principle - idea that we should
  assign reduced weight to a particular cause of
  behavior if there are other plausible causes that
  might have produced it
• Augmentation principle - idea that we should
  assign greater weight to a particular cause of
  behavior if there are other causes present that
  normally would produce the opposite outcome

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Attribution Theories

• 2. Attribution and Single-Instance Observation
• Correspondent inference- we can tell something
  about a persons traits from observing their
  behavior, especially when behavior
• is freely chosen
• person rallying for womens rights is feminist
• is socially undesirable (or unusual)
• teacher who wears white hi-tops is free spirit
• yields noncommon effects (one cause only)
• woman who marries rich, stupid, ugly man is
  probably marrying for money

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Inferences Using Noncommon Effects
Prestigious School Clinical Program Desirable
Location Lots of Requirements
Prestigious School Desirable Location Lots of
Requirements
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Inferences Using Noncommon Effects
Prestigious School Clinical Program Desirable
Location
Prestigious School Lots of Requirements
Desirable Location
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Attribution Theories (cont)

• 3. Attribution and Multiple Observations
• Kelleys Covariation Principle
• To explain others behavior we use
• consensus- extent others behave in same way
• consistency- extent person always behaves this
  way
• distinctiveness- extent person acts differently
  in other situations

2.8
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Internal vs. External Attributions

• Internal attribution (e.g., Scott is good
  climber) made if
• Low consensus others have difficulty climbing
  this cliff
• High consistency Scott has successfully climbed
  cliff in past
• Low distinctiveness Scott has climbed
  easier/more difficult cliffs
• External attribution (e.g., restaurant is good)
  made if
• High consensus others like the food
• High consistency Ann liked the food every time
• High distinctiveness Ann doesnt like many
  restaurants

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The Processes of Causal Attribution

• 4. Attribution and Imagining an Alternate Chain
  of Events
• a. The influence of what almost happened
• counterfactual thoughts - thoughts of what might
  have, could have, or should have happened if
  only something had been done differently

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Counterfactual Thinking

• imagining what might have been (mentally
  undoing events)
• Counterfactual thinking can
• regret over missed opportunities
• increase our understanding of why event happened
• affect our current moods
• upward- imagining better outcomes (envy)
• silver medalist who imagines winning gold
• downward- imagining worse outcomes (satisfaction)
• bronze medalist who imagines winning no medal at
  all

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Fig. 9.2
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The Processes of Causal Attribution

• emotional amplification - a ratcheting up of an
  emotional reaction to an event that is
  proportional to how easy it is to imagine the
  event not happening
• Medvec, et al., (1995) study of counterfactual
  thinking in Olympic atheletes

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Fig. 9.3
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Attributional Errors

• Attributional Errors
• Fundamental attribution error (correspondence
  bias)- tendency to overestimate internal causes
  of others behavior while ignoring external
  causes
• Actor-observer effect- tendency to attribute own
  behavior to external causes, but others to
  internal
• Self-serving bias- tendency to take credit for
  success and blame failures on the situation
• Western (individualistic) cultures are more
  susceptible to these biases than Eastern
  (collectivistic) cultures

Forward
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Applications of Attribution Theory

• Attribution and Depression
• depressed persons often show a self-defeating
  pattern of attributions opposite of the
  self-serving bias
• attribute positive events to temporary, external
  causes
• attribute negative events to internal causes
• cognitive therapy that reverses pattern is
  effective
• Attribution and Rape
• people with a strong belief in a just world (bad
  things happen to bad people) are more likely to
  blame the rape victim

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Errors and Biases in Attribution

• c. Causes of the Fundamental Attribution Error
• 1. Dispositional inferences can be comforting
• 2. People tend to attribute behavior to
  dispositions (they are motivated to do this)
• just-world hypothesis - the belief that people
  get what they deserve in life and deserve what
  they get

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Causes of the Fundamental Attribution Error
Continued

• 3. People are more salient causes than situations
• 4. Behavioral information is considered first,
  before situational factors
• 5. Because the behavioral (personality)
  characterization is rather automatic, it is
  incorruptible (hard to reverse).

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Errors and Biases in Attribution

• 3. The Actor-Observer Difference in Causal
  Attributions
• differences in attribution based on who is
  making the causal assessment the actor (who is
  relatively disposed to make situational
  attributions) or the observer (who is relatively
  disposed to make dispositional attributions)

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Errors and Biases in Attribution

• 4. Processes that give rise to the
  Actor-Observer Effect
• 1. Assumptions about what it is that needs
  explaining can vary for actors and observers
• 2. The perceptual salience of the actor and the
  surrounding situation is different for the actor
  and the observer
• 3. Actors and observers differ in the amount and
  kind of information that they have about the
  actor and the actors behavior

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Errors and Biases in Attribution

• 5. The False-consensus effect
• false-consensus effect - tendency for people to
  think that their behavior (as well as their
  attitudes, values, or responses more generally)
  is relatively common

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Culture and the Fundamental Attribution Error

• 1. Cultural Differences in Attending to Context
• 2. Causal Attribution for Independent and
  Interdependent Peoples
• 3. Priming Culture
• 4. Dispositions Fixed or Flexible?