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EXPLORING
PSYCHOLOGY
EIGHTH EDITION IN MODULES
David Myers
PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson State University
Worth Publishers, © 2011
Social Psychology
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Social Thinking
Module 37
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Attributing Behavior to Persons or
to Situations
 The Effects of Attribution
Attitudes and Actions
 Attitudes Affect Actions
 Actions Affect Attitudes
 CLOSE-UP: Abu Ghraib Prison: An
“Atrocity-Producing Situation”?
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Social Psychology
“We cannot live for ourselves alone.”
Herman Melville
Social psychology scientifically studies how we
think about, influence, and relate to one another.
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Social Thinking
Social thinking involves thinking about others,
especially when they engage in doing things
that are unexpected.
Social psychologists study the social influences
that help explain why the same person acts
differently in different situations.
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Attributing Behavior to Persons or to
Situations
Attribution Theory proposes that we usually attribute
others’ behavior either to their internal dispositions or
to their external situations (Heider, 1958).
For instance, we may notice that Juliette rarely talks in
class, and therefore assume that she is shy.
Because personality traits are enduring, these
attributions are sometimes valid.
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Attributing Behavior to Persons
or Situations
The tendency to overestimate the impact of
personal disposition and underestimate the
impact of the situation in analyzing the
behaviors of others leads to the fundamental
attribution error.
We see Juliette as quiet, shy, and introverted
most of the time, but with friends she may be
talkative, loud, and extroverted.
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Attributing Behavior to Persons
or Situations
When explaining others’ behavior
we often make the fundamental
attribution error. But, when we
explain our own behavior we tend
to be sensitive to how it changes
with situation.
Studies have shown that if we
look at behavior from the point of
view of the actor rather than the
observer, we can better appreciate
the situation.
In this shot, people felt that Obama gave
Hilary the cold shoulder at this political
event, when in fact he had just greeted
her and then turned away to speak to
someone off-camera.
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Effects of Attribution
Our attributions can have important consequences.
A jury must decide whether a shooting was
malicious or accidental. An interviewer must judge
whether an applicant is being sincere.
In looking at the political effects of attribution,
researchers have found that political conservatives
tend to attribute poverty and unemployment to the
poor themselves. While political liberals tend to
attribute these problems to past or present
situations.
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Attitudes & Actions
Attitudes are beliefs and feelings that
predispose a person to respond in a particular
way to objects, other people, and events.
If we believe a person is mean, we may feel
dislike for the person and act unfriendly.
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Attitudes Affect Actions
Our attitudes predict our behaviors imperfectly
because other factors, including the external
situation, also influence behavior.
Democratic leaders supported Bush’s attack on
Iraq under public pressure. However, they had
their private reservations.
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Attitudes Affect Actions
Attitudes can be changed by:
Central route persuasion interested people focus on
the arguments and respond
with favorable thoughts.
Peripheral route persuasion people are influenced by
incidental cues, such as a
speaker’s attractiveness.
Leonardo DiCaprio has used both his celebrity
(peripheral route) and a documentary (central
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route) to persuade people to think about
environment.
Actions Can Affect Attitudes
Not only do people stand for what they believe in
(attitude), they start believing in what they stand
for.
Cooperative actions can lead to mutual liking (beliefs).
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The Foot-in-the-Door
Phenomenon
In the Korean War, Chinese communists
solicited cooperation from US army prisoners
by asking them to carry out small errands. Once
they had complied with small errands they
were likely to comply to larger ones.
Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon: The tendency
for people who have first agreed to a small
request to comply later with a larger request.
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Role Playing Affects Attitudes
When adopting a new role – becoming a college
student, getting married, becoming a parent –
you strive to follow the social prescriptions.
At first you may feel like you’re acting, but
eventually the new role becomes your life.
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Role Playing Affects Attitudes
Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to
random students and found that they developed role-appropriate
attitudes. Many of the “guards” developed disparaging attitudes and
were cruel and degrading to the “prisoners”.
Zimbardo believes that the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
arose partly because the guards attitudes were changed by their
situation.
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Cognitive Dissonance
Why do actions affect attitudes? One
explanation is that when our attitudes and
actions are opposed, we experience tension.
This is called cognitive dissonance.
To relieve ourselves of this tension we bring our
attitudes closer to our actions (Festinger, 1957).
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