Causal Attributions
Stable
Unstable
Internal
External
Ability, Intelligence,
Personality Traits
Task difficulty
Effort, Mood
Luck, Transitory
weather conditions
Also, there are 2 other dimensions: Global versus Specific
Kelly’s Cube Model of Attribution
The behavior to be
explained: Seymore makes
a pass at Lolita
(Consistency)
In a classroom
At a party
At work
(Distinctiveness)
Sister Mary Teresa
Lolita
At a bar
Marcie
Susie
Seymore Tom Dick Harry (Consensus)
Kelly’s Cube Model of Attribution (cont.)
Typically, we do not have complete information about people on all
three of Kelly’s dimensions. Also, research has shown that the
dimension of “consistency” is used quite a bit, whereas “consensus” is
not used frequently.
Sue receive an A on the final paper for Professor Adams. Half the
class got A’s on this paper, and the other half got B’s. This is the 1st
time that Sue has received an A on a paper; in her other courses she
has obtained B’s on her papers. On the last paper for this class, Sue
also received an A. Why did Sue get an A?
She is an excellent writer
Consistency:
High or Low
Her teacher is an easy grader
Consensus:
High or Low
This paper was especially good
Distinctiveness: High or Low
Joan received an A on her final paper for Professor Downs. No one
else in the class received an A. Joan gets A’s on almost all of her
papers she writes in other classes. On the last paper for this class,
Joan also received an A. Why did Joan get an A?
She is an excellent writer
Consistency:
High or Low
Her teacher is an easy grader
Consensus:
High or Low
This paper was especially good
Distinctiveness: High or Low
Actor-Observer Effect (Difference)
The actor/observer effect: The tendency to see
other people’s behavior as dispositionally caused
(e.g., ability, personality), while focusing more on
the role of situational factors (e.g., task difficulty,
bad luck) when explaining one’s own behavior.
Reasons for the Actor-Observer Difference
•
Perceptual salience: Actors notice the situations around them that
influence them to act, while observers notice the actors
Observer’s focus is
on the actor
Actor’s focus is on the task (the basket)
Information access: Actors have more information about themselves
than do observers (e.g., how consistent present behavior is to past
behavior) Actor: “That’s the first free throw I’ve missed in 4 games”
•
Motivational bias: Explanations for one’s successes that credit
internal, dispositional factors, as opposed to failures, which are
explained by external, situational factors (e.g., bad luck)
[Self-esteem maintenance; self-presentation reasons]
Quiz Show Game Study (Power of social roles)
Questioner (writes a set of 10 reasonably difficult questions
Contestant (has to answer the questions by the questioner)
Told that this
assignment
was random; it
wasn’t
Observers
Ratings of others on a general knowledge rest
• Questioner perceived as more knowledgeable by contestants and
observers
GPA and External Attributions for Failure
Training session
to address issues
facing new student,
How to cope with
Problems, Where to go
for help, etc.
Giving students realistic
reasons for possible poor
1st year performance
(e.g., new setting,
more adjustments, harder
classes)
• Higher GPA
• Less absenteeism
• Lower dropout rate
• Greater satisfaction with school
Attributions in the Sports pages
• Prevalence of unstable attributions (e.g., effort, lack of focus) for the outcomes
of oneself or others
• Prevalence of internal attributions for success and failure
"We hadn't played a real game in 12 days and that had a lot to do with it,''
--- Iciss Tillis of the Duke Blue Devils Women’s basketball team
"For this fight I had to lose a lot of weight. I wasn't that strong … “
--- Boxer Floyd "Pretty Boy" Mayweather on beating Jr. Jesus Chavez
"He's been putting too much pressure on himself” --- Duke Head Coach ----- Mike Krzyzewski on Chris Duhon’s poor play
Attributions in the Sports Pages
Overview
• Success is attributed to internal factors (Self-Enhancement Strategy )
• Failure is attributed to external factors (Self-Protective Device)
• Prevalence of internal outcomes for both success and failure (especially
unstable ones)
• Unexpected outcomes lead to a greater number of attributions
(e.g., need for greater attributional searching for possible explanations)
Attribution Examples in Sports
Self-Attributions
Internal & Stable
• "I am the toughest golfer mentally“ -- Tiger Woods after winning 4 straight majors
• "We have the best coach ever, the most dominant player in the world and the
best team” – Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers, on winning 3 straight NBA Titles
• "I screwed up. It's all on me. I know that. But losing this Masters is not the end of
the world” -- Greg Norman on losing a 6-stroke lead
Internal & Unstable (most common)
• "I could not be as aggressive as I wanted to be and kind of flinched a couple of
times" -- Golfer Ernie Els on a wrist injury and his 77 final round score
• -- “It was one of those nights. I felt like I couldn’t miss” – Michael Jordan
Attribution Examples in Sports
Self-Attributions
External & Stable
"I told my guys after the game this is the most selfish team I've been around from the
standpoint of not executing what you try to teach them from day one” –- Indiana
Basketball Coach Mike Davis on losing to Pittsburgh
“I knew I was going to have problems against his left-handed boxing''
--- Boxer Michele Piccirillo on losing a match to Cory Spinks
External & Unstable
“That was just more bad luck. It seems like every week, one thing goes wrong, that
the bad luck is always on us and the ball never bounces our way” --- USC
Quarterback Carson Palmer
"We hadn't played a real game in 12 days and that had a lot to do with it''
--- Iciss Tillis of the Duke’s Women’s basketball team on their poor performance
Attributions for Others – Coding Issue
“They played better than us tonight” (External)
Versus
“We didn’t play very well tonight” (Internal)
• Although different, do they serve the same attributional
purpose?
Combination example:
“It was not as much what they did as it was what we didn’t do” –
Dayton player Brooks Hall on losing to Tulsa in NCAA tourney
Attribution Examples in Sports
Attributions For Others* --Self-Serving Bias?
External & Stable
• "He's probably the best defender I've faced my whole career"
-- Indiana guard Tom Coverdale on Pittsburg guard Julius Page after scoring only 6
points in a losing effort
External & Unstable
• “Giguere was just too good tonight" -- Columbus coach Doug MacLeanon referring
to Anaheim goalie after a loss
• “You have to give State credit, they came back out and played a great second half and
we did not" -- North Carolina Head Coach John Bunting on losing to N.C. State
• “… if you're going to beat us, you need to come with your best game for 40 minutes”
-- Maryland forward Tahj Holden
Self-Handicapping Behavior
Early assumptions:
A) People wish to have accurate information/feedback regarding their
abilities
B) Role of achievement motivation (high versus low)
Definition of self-handicapping strategies; behavior that:
A) Enhance external attributions for failure
B) Allows internal attributions for success
(e.g., Kelly’s augmentation principle)
Self-Handicapping Behavior (cont.)
"Cause" of self-handicapping
A) Non-contingent reinforcement history, especially
for success (e.g., Success not due to one’s ability or effort)
B) Perception that successful performance cannot likely be repeated
The belief that one deserves or has partially earned their success (e.g., due
to themselves) has to exist
Self-Handicapping Behavior (cont.)
Insolvable Task-2
(stakes raised)
Insolvable Task
“Success”
Private
Public
Drug Choice
Ability attributions
Males
Females
Males attributed
their “success” to
ability more than
females
Enhancing
drug
Impairing
drug
Males much more
likely to choose
impairing drug –
even when only
they were told of
their initial success
(private condition)
Misattribution and Speech Anxiety
Placebo usage ---
a) Cause of one’s arousal is not obvious
b) Misattribution source is salient (obvious, easily observable)
c) Misattribution source is perceived as plausible
Giving a speech (anxiety
arousing event)
Subliminal noise to
increase anxiety
Less mistakes
made during
speech
Subliminal noise to
decrease anxiety
Accurate information; e.g.,
it’s common to be anxious
• Anxiety is partially explained by the noise as well as the person
Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation
Early assumptions:
Intrinsic
+ Extrinsic
Work on enjoyable
task
=
Motivation
No reward
Expected reward
Persisted on the task
longest after they
could quit
Unexpected reward
• Extrinsically rewarding someone who intrinsically enjoys their work may
reduce intrinsic motivation levels.
Seligman’s Suggestions
A) Allow external attributions for failure (when reasonable)
B) Develop strategies for improvement after failure
C) Failure is not “the end of the world” (learning experience, feedback)
D) Allow development of personal control in early years of life
The six major (universal) emotional expressions
• Anger
• Fear
•Happiness
• Sadness
• Surprise
• Disgust
What two emotions are hard to distinguish?
Non-Verbal Communication
1) Emblems: Gestures that have specific
meanings within a given culture (e.g., “OK” sign)
2) Illustrators: Gestures that emphasize a point
3) Affect displays: Basic emotional expressions (e.g., sad, happy)
4) Regulators: Gestures that help to foster communication (e.g., opening
mouth to indicate one wants to speak, nodding head in agreement, raising
eyebrows to indicate interest)
5) Adaptors: Nonverbal behavior (often habitual) that occur under stressful
situations (e.g., twirling hair, tapping fingers)
Non-Verbal Communication (cont.)
Eye contact:
Length of gaze (too little, just right, too much)
Personal space:
• Relationship to the other person
• Cultural differences
• Status differences (high status = more personal space)
Touching:
• Cultural differences
• Gender Differences
• Status differences
Deception Quotes
"Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense
to know how to lie well.” --- Samuel Butler
"That which has been believed by everyone, always and
everywhere, has every chance of being false." --- Paul Valéry
"Some lies are so well disguised to resemble truth, that we
should be poor judges of the truth not to believe them ."
--- Anonymous
"There's only one way to find out if a man is honest; Ask him. If
he says yes, you know he's a crook." --- Groucho Marx
“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty
and how few by deceit.” --- Noël Coward
Deception Quotes (cont.)
"...In spite of the hardness and ruthlessness i thought i saw in his face, I got the impression that here
was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word...."
--- Neville chamberlain, 9/15/38
(Writing to his sister after
Meeting with Hitler)
When the situation seems to be exactly what it appears to be, the closest likely alternative is that the
situation has been completely faked; when fakery seems extremely evident, the next most probable
possibility is that nothing faked is present."
--- Erving Goffman,
Strategic Interaction
"The relevant framework is not one of morality but of survival. At every level, from brute camouflage
to poetic vision, the linguistic capacity to conceal, misinform, leave ambiguous, hypothesize, invent is
indispensable to the equilibrium of human consciousness and to the development of man in society..."
--- George Steiner, After Babel
If falsehood, like truth, had only one face, we would be in better shape. For we would take as certain
the opposite of what the liar said. But the reverse of truth has a hundred thousand shapes and a
limitless field.
--- Montaigne, Essays
Cues to Detecting Deception
Do liars give shorter answers?
Do liars touch themselves more?
Do liars pause more before answering?
Do liars talk slower?
Do liars shift more?
Do liars smile less?
Do liars use less eye contact?
• Facial: Hard to interpret accurately because people may display
blends of multiple affects simultaneously; easier to control
when lying (often the worse indicator)
• Verbal (what is said, how things are said)
• Body: Difficult to control; “leakage can occur (often the best
indicator of deception)
Answers to previous questions --Do liars give shorter answers? Perception = No; Actual = Yes
Do liars touch themselves more? Perception = No; Actual = Yes
Do liars pause more before answering? Perception = Yes; Actual = No
Do liars talk slower? Perception = Yes; Actual = No
Do liars shift more? Perception = Yes; Actual = No
Do liars smile less? Perception = Yes; Actual = No
Do liars use less eye contact? Perception = Yes; Actual = No
Deception Studies
Smugglers going through customs:
Customs Agents
Lay people
No differences between
the two groups in
accuracy of identifying
smugglers
Taped interview of people
lying or telling the truth
Police officers
Students
Taped interview of people
lying or telling the truth
Police officers
Students
Psychologists
SS officers
Those with poor noverbal skills, young,
lower SES selected
52% correct
54% correct
Best; use of nonverbal cues
Culture
Physical attractiveness
Motivation to lie