Formation of Attribution Biases
Attribution Bias/Attribution is a
cognitive process in which all individuals engage in an attempt to understand
causality or why things happen (Iatridis & Fousiani, 2009). In the attempts
to assess causality, humans are far less than perfect and often make mistakes.
Social psychologists have long studied the attribution process and have
identified several such mistakes or biases that appear consistently over time,
including correspondence bias (fundamental attribution error), actor-observer
effect, self-serving attribution bias, and self-centered bias to name a few.
Think about attribution biases in which you have engaged and what information, if
available, might have prevented the biases.
Reference: Iatridis, T., &
Fousiani, K. (2009). Effects of status and outcome on attributions and
just-world beliefs: How the social distribution of success and failure may be
rationalized. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(2), 415-420.
A description of three attribution
biases and explain one way you engaged in each.
Select two of the attribution
biases and explain what information could have been present to prevent the use
of this attribution bias.
Explain whether or not attribution
biases can be positive and why.
Be specific and use the current
literature to support your response.
