Actor-observer bias

Actor-observer bias

In psychology, people are known to display an actor-observer bias, when actors tend to attribute their own behavior to their circumstances (i.e., situation causes), but tend to attribute the behaviors of those we observe to their dispositions (i.e., person causes). It is a kind of attributional bias, and therefore also a cognitive bias.

Following Jones and Nisbett, the actor-observer bias is distinguished from Ross's "fundamental attribution error", which is people's general tendency to overemphasize dispositional explanations and underemphasize situational ones; in other words, the term "actor-observer bias" emphasizes the difference in attribution between the person performing the behavior (who tends to attribute his behavior to his circumstances) and other people observing him (who tend to attribute his behavior to his personality), while the term "fundamental attribution error" ignores this difference.

Simply put, the actor-observer bias can be expressed as, "If others do it, it's their fault; if I do it, it's not my fault, it's because of the situation I'm in."

In a review of the literature since Jones and Nisbett's study Malle (2006) noted there has been lack of support for this hypothesis. Analysis of the literature fails to support the asymmetry between actors and observers set forth by Jones and Nisbett. Instead it is hypothesized that we use everyday experiential explanations that are centered around an unintentional or intentional causal explanation and intentional and aware or intentional and unaware (Malle, 2007).

References

* Jones, E. E., & Nisbett, R. E. 1971. "The Actor and the Observer: Divergent Perceptions of the Causes of Behavior." New York: General Learning Press.
* Ross, L. D. 1977. "The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process." "Advances in Experimental Social Psychology", Vol. 10: 173–220. New York: Random House.
* Malle, B. F. (2006). The actor-observer asymmetry in causal attribution: A (surprising) meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 895-919.
* Malle, B. F., Knobe, J., & Nelson, S. (2007). Actor-observer asymmetries in explanations of behavior: New answers to an old question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 491-514.

ee also

* Attribution
* Attribution theory
* Fundamental attribution error
* List of cognitive biases


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