Attribution bias
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 21:11, 26 June 2011 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) (Attributional bias moved to Attribution bias) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | '''Labelling''' or '''Labeling''' is describing someone or something in a word or short phrase. For example, describing someone who has broken a law as a criminal. [[Labeling theory]] is a theory in [[sociology]] which ascribes labelling of people to control and identification of deviant behavior. | + | In [[psychology]], an '''attributional bias''' is a [[cognitive bias]] that affects the way we determine who or what was responsible for an event or action (''[[attribution (psychology)|attribution]]''). |
| - | It has been argued that labelling is necessary for communication. However, the use of the term ''labelling'' is often intended to highlight the fact that the ''label'' is a description applied from the outside, rather than something intrinsic to the labelled thing. This can be done for several reasons: | + | Attributional biases typically take the form of ''actor/observer differences'': people involved in an action (''actors'') view things differently from people not involved (''observers''). These discrepancies are often caused by asymmetries in [[availability heuristic|availability]] (frequently called "[[salience]]" in this context). For example, the behavior of an actor is easier to remember (and therefore more available for later consideration) than the setting in which he found himself; and a person's own inner turmoil is more available to himself than it is to someone else. As a result, our judgments of attribution are often distorted along those lines. |
| - | *To provoke a discussion about what the best description is | + | |
| - | *To reject a particular label | + | |
| - | *To reject the whole idea that the labelled thing can be described in a short phrase. | + | |
| - | This last usage can be seen as an accusation that such a short description is overly-[[Reduction (philosophy)|reductive]]. | + | |
| - | Giving something a label can be seen as positive, but the term ''label'' is not usually used in this case. For example, giving a name to a common identity is seen as essential in [[identity politics]]. | + | In some experiments, for example, subjects were shown only one side of a conversation or were able to see the face of only one of the conversational participants. Whomever the subjects had a better view of were judged by them as being more important and more influential, and as having had a greater role in the conversation. |
| - | Labelling is often equivalent to [[pigeonholing]] or the use of [[stereotypes]] and can suffer from the same problems as these activities. | + | Perhaps the best known attributional bias is the [[fundamental attribution error]], which describes the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality-based explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors. |
| - | The labelling of people can be related to a [[reference group]]. For example, the labels ''black'' and ''white'' are related to [[black people]] and [[white people]]; the labels ''young'' and ''old'' are related to [[young people]] and [[old people]]. | + | ==List of attributional biases== |
| - | + | * [[Actor-observer bias]] | |
| - | The labelling of [[Work of art|works of art]] can be related to [[genre]]. For example a piece of music may be described as [[progressive rock]] or [[Independent music|indie]]. However, there are other labels that can be applied to a work, such as [[Derivative work|derivative]], [[Low culture|low]] or [[High culture|high]]. The use of the word labelling is less common in the context of works of art than people. However, it also often represents the rejection of a label. For example, an [[artist]] may feel that the labeller is attempting to restrict the scope of the artist's work to that which is covered by the label. | + | * [[Egocentric bias]] |
| - | + | * [[False consensus effect]] | |
| - | ==See also== | + | * [[Free will bias]] |
| - | *[[Pigeonholing]] | + | * [[Fundamental attribution error]] |
| - | *[[Archetype]] | + | * [[Group attribution error]] |
| - | *[[Social stigma]] | + | * [[Group-serving bias]] |
| - | *[[Labeling theory]] | + | * [[Hedonistic relevance]] |
| - | *[[Name calling]] | + | * [[Negativity effect]] |
| - | *[[Attributional bias]] | + | * [[Positivity effect]] |
| - | *[[Discrimination]] | + | * [[Positive outcome bias]] |
| + | * [[Self-serving bias]] | ||
| + | * [[Trait ascription bias]] | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
In psychology, an attributional bias is a cognitive bias that affects the way we determine who or what was responsible for an event or action (attribution).
Attributional biases typically take the form of actor/observer differences: people involved in an action (actors) view things differently from people not involved (observers). These discrepancies are often caused by asymmetries in availability (frequently called "salience" in this context). For example, the behavior of an actor is easier to remember (and therefore more available for later consideration) than the setting in which he found himself; and a person's own inner turmoil is more available to himself than it is to someone else. 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 the face of only one of the conversational participants. Whomever the subjects had a better view of were judged by them as being more important and more influential, and as having had a greater role in the conversation.
Perhaps the best known attributional bias is the fundamental attribution error, which describes the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality-based explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors.
List of attributional biases
- Actor-observer bias
- Egocentric bias
- False consensus effect
- Free will bias
- Fundamental attribution error
- Group attribution error
- Group-serving bias
- Hedonistic relevance
- Negativity effect
- Positivity effect
- Positive outcome bias
- Self-serving bias
- Trait ascription bias
