Attribution bias

In psychology, an attribution bias or attributional errors is a cognitive bias that refers to the systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and others' behaviors.[1][2] It refers to the systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, often leading to perceptual distortions, inaccurate assessments, or illogical interpretations of events and behaviors.[3]

Attributions are the judgments and assumptions people make about why others behave a certain way. However, these judgments may not always reflect the true situation. Instead of being completely objective, people often make errors in perception that lead to skewed interpretations of social situations.[4][5] Attribution biases are present in everyday life. For example, when a driver cuts someone off, the person who has been cut off is often more likely to attribute blame to the reckless driver's inherent personality traits (e.g., "That driver is rude and incompetent") rather than situational circumstances (e.g., "That driver may have been late to work and was not paying attention").

Additionally, there are many different types of attribution biases, such as the ultimate attribution error, fundamental attribution error, actor-observer bias, and hostile attribution bias. Each of these biases describes a specific tendency that people exhibit when reasoning about the cause of different behaviors.[3]

This field of study helps to understand how people make sense of their own and others' actions. It also shows us how our preconceptions and mental shortcuts can impact our decision-making. Researchers have delved deeper into these biases and explored how they influence emotions and actions.[6][7][8][9]

  1. ^ Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley. p. 322.
  2. ^ Abramson, L.Y.; Seligman, M.E.; Teasdale, J.D. (1978). "Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 87 (1): 49–74. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.87.1.49. PMID 649856. S2CID 2845204.
  3. ^ a b Kelley, H.H. (1967). Attribution theory in social psychology. In D. Levine (Ed.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press
  4. ^ Funder, D.C. (1987). "Errors and mistakes: Evaluating the accuracy of social judgment". Psychological Bulletin. 101 (1): 75–90. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.75. PMID 3562704. S2CID 16095191.
  5. ^ Nisbett, R.E. & Ross, L. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  6. ^ Jones, E.. & Nisbett, R.E. (1971). The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behaviors. New York: General Learning Press.
  7. ^ Crick, N.R.; Dodge, K.A. (1996). "Social information-processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression". Child Development. 67 (3): 993–1002. doi:10.2307/1131875. JSTOR 1131875. PMID 8706540.
  8. ^ Camodeca, M.; Goossens, F.A.; Schuengel, C.; Terwogt, M.M. (2003). "Links between social informative processing in middle childhood and involvement in bullying" (PDF). Aggressive Behavior. 29 (2): 116–127. doi:10.1002/ab.10043.
  9. ^ Jones, Edward E.; Davis, Keith E. (1965). "From Acts to Dispositions: The Attribution Process in Person Perception". In Berkowitz, Leonard (ed.). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Vol. 2. pp. 219–266. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60107-0. ISBN 9780120152025.