Contestant Quiz Master

Less 1    

Slightly less 2    

About the same 3

   

Slightly more 4

   

More 5    

Learning Outcome: Discuss two Errors in

Attribution1)Fundamental Attribution Error

2) Self-Serving Bias

*Fundamental Attribution Error

*When people overestimate the role of dispositional factors in an individual's behaviour—and underestimate the situational factors—it is called the fundamental attribution error (Gilbert and Jones 1986)

*Since people gather information by observing others, this often leads to illogical conclusions. Ex. George Clooney

*Why is this error so common?

*People think of themselves as adaptable, flexible, ever-changing human beings

*But with others we don’t have enough info to make a balanced decision so we assume dispositional causes for their behaviour

*Western culture – people held responsible for their actions.

* Judicial system (motives for crimes).

*Studies!*With a partner, look at study by Lee et al (1977) –

OneNote document (should be saved on your computer!)

*Aim

*Procedure

*Findings

*One strength and one limitation of the study (GMEC)

*Also, Jones and Harris (1967) in green text pg. 108. Take notes on:

*Aim

*Procedure

*Findings

*One strength and one limitation of the study (GMEC)

*Gilbert and Malone (1995) explain FAE and argue that it involves a two-step attribution process

*1) Largely automatic, unconscious processing when we first observe behaviour. We assume dispositional causes.

*2) Second step more controlled, conscious processing. We enquire into whether or not situational factors may have influenced behaviour.

*Self-Serving Bias

*This is seen when people take credit for their successes, attributing them to dispositional factors, and dissociate themselves from their failures, attributing them to situational factors.

*Study: Lau and Russel (1980)

*Lau and Russel (1980) found that American football coaches and players tend to credit their wins to internal factors—for example, being in good shape, the hard work they have put in, the natural talent of the team—and their failures to external factors—for example, injuries, weather, fouls committed by the other team.

*Johnson et al (1964)

*Whole-class activity:

*Student(s) to read aloud research on pg. 109 of green text

*Aim?

*Procedure?

*Findings?

*Ethical considerations?

*Modesty Bias*It also seems that there are cultural differences in SSB. In

studies carried out by Kashima and Triandis (1986), significant cultural differences were found between US and Japanese students.

*In their experiment, Kashima and Triandis asked participants to remember details of slides of scenes from unfamiliar countries. When asked to explain their performance, the Americans tended to attribute their success to ability while the Japanese tended to explain their failures in terms of their lack of ability. This is called a modesty bias. Chandler et al. (1990) also observed this bias in Japanese students, and Watkins and Regmi (1990) found the same in Nepalese students. Why should this be the case?

*The role of culture is pivotal in understanding the modesty bias. Bond, Leung, and Wan (1982) found that Chinese students who exhibited the modesty bias instead of the SSB were more popular with their peers; so it does have a self serving quality as modesty in China is rated highly!

*The modesty bias has a self serving quality.

*Kashima and Triandis argue that it is because of the more collective nature of many Asian societies: if people derive their self-esteem not from individual accomplishment but from group identity, they are less likely to use the SSB.

*Scenarios…let’s see those acting

skills!

*In a group of 4 people, you will need to act out one of the attribution errors that we just learned about. Be as creative as you can and think of a scenario that we haven’t already used yet!

*For the purposes of this exercise we’ll use FAE, SSB and Modesty Bias

*I will come around and assign your group the attribution error and you must make up a scenario to present to the class.