Attributional biases are cognitive biases which affect attribution -- the way we determine who or what was responsible for an event or action.

Such biases typically rely on actor/observer differences, which is the way people involved in an action and those outside of it view things differently.

Often they are caused by asymmetry in availability (frequently called "salience " in this context). The behavior of actors is easier to remember than the background settings; or, our own inner turmoil is more available to ourselves than it is to others. As a result, our judgments of attribution are often distorted along those lines.

In some experiments, for example, subjects were shown only one side of a conversation or were able to see one of the faces of the conversational participants. Whomever the subjects had a better view of were judged by them as being more important, influential, and having a greater role in the conversation.

Interestingly, there is some evidence that more intelligent and socially apt people are more likely to make errors in attribution.

The most well-known and representative example of an attributional bias is the fundamental attribution error.

Attributional biases include:

• egocentric bias
• false consensus effect
• fundamental attribution error
• group attribution error
• group-serving bias
• negativity effect
• positivity effect
• positive outcome bias
• self-serving bias
• trait ascription bias

See also: attribution theory, causal oversimplification, causality, list of cognitive biases

References

• Block, J., & Funder, D. C. (1986). Social roles and social perception: Individual differences in attribution and "error." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1200-1207.

External links

• Psychology of Intelligence Analysis: Biases in Perception of Cause and Effect