They tend to assume that the behavior of another person is a trait of that person, and to underestimate the power of the situation on the behavior of others. In the end, taking another person’s perspective may allow for a stronger appreciation of the situation, rather than falling prey to dispositional attributions, especially when the other individual may be a stranger.Īccording to some social psychologists, people tend to overemphasize internal factors as explanations-or attributions-for the behavior of other people. In part, this reversal is due to an inherent self-serving bias, which favors the self in a positive manner to avoid explanations that could threaten their own disposition. Interestingly, if a negative event occurred to oneself or a close friend, the person is quick to blame the present situation and not their character. This case is an example of making a fundamental attribution error-the tendency for observers to underestimate the impact of a situation and to over estimate the impact of personal disposition when analyzing others’ behavior. Based on the attribution theory, people have a tendency to associate negative actions performed by others, like becoming homeless, to their personality-inferring that they are ignorant and lazy-thus undermining external situational factors that more likely explain their condition, such as a wildfire sweeping through their neighborhood and destroying everything.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |