Correspondent Inference

Correspondent Inference Theory
Behaviour that is
Freely chosen
Non common in its effects
Low in social desirability
Somehow forced
Common in its effects
High in social desirability
Originates from the person’s stable traits
Originates from the situational effects

Kelley’s covariation theory derived principally from Heider’s covariation principle, which states that people explain events in terms of things that are present when the event occurs but absent when it does not.
Kelley’s Covariation Model

Attributions based on 3 kinds of info, which represent the degree to which:
Consensus
…other actors perform the same behavior with the same object.
Kelley’s Covariation Model

Consistency
…the actor performs that same behavior toward an object on different occasions.
Kelley’s Covariation Model

Distinctiveness
…the actor performs different behaviors with different targets.
Kelley’s Covariation Model

High Consensus
(Everyone hits Steve)
High Consistency
(Bob always hits Steve)
High Distinctiveness
(Bob only hits Steve)
Kelley’s Attribution Model: External

Low Consensus
(Only Bob hits Steve)
High Consistency
(Bob always hits Steve)
Low Distinctiveness
(Bob hits everyone)
Kelley’s Attribution Model: Internal

Consensus
The extent to which an individual’s response is similar to one shown by others
Consistency
The extent to which an individual responds to a given situation in the same way as on different occasions
Distinctiveness
The extent to which an individual responds in the same way as to different situations
Low
High
Low
High
High
High
Internal Causes
External Causes
Theory of Causal Attribution

Cross-cultural Variations in Attributional Bias

Difficult to discern the cause of behaviour, therefore we use shortcuts or heuristics.
This leads to errors and biases
Errors in Attribution

Tendency to attribute others’ behaviour to enduring dispositions (e.g., attitudes, personality traits) because of both:
Underestimation of the influence of situational factors.
Overestimation of the influence of dispositional factors.
Fundamental Attribution Error

Four possible explanations:
Behavior is more noticeable than situational factors.
Insignificant weight is assigned to situational factors.
People are cognitive misers.
Richer trait-like language to explain behavior.
Fundamental Attribution Error

There is a pervasive tendency for actors to attribute their actions to situational requirements, whereas observers tend to attribute the same actions to stable personal dispositions
Actor/Observer Bias

Tendency to attribute:
Personal success  Internal
Personal failure  External
Other’s success  External
Other’s failure  Internal
Self-serving bias

Self-serving bias

Motivational: Self-esteem maintenance.
Social: Self-presentation and impression formation.
Cultural: Effects are less prevalent in Eastern/Collectivistic cultures
Self-serving bias

FAE applied to in- and out- groups, i.e., Bias towards:
internal attributions for in-group success and external attributions for in-group failures
Opposite for out-groups
Ultimate Attribution Error

The tendency to test a proposition by searching for evidence that would support it.
○ If you want to support a particular viewpoint/candidate/etc., you look for material that supports this POV and ignore material that does not.
○ People are more likely to readily accept information that supports what they want to be true, but critically scrutinize/discount information that contradicts them.
○ However, it is not necessarily this ideologically motivated; it can just mean that people only test hypotheses by trying to confirm them, not by trying to reject them.
CONFIRMATION BIAS

Snyder & Swann, 1978
○ Introduced a person to the participants of the experiment
○ Had to ask questions to get to know him/her better.
CONFIRMATION BIAS: PERSON PERCEPTION

When people were asked to determine if someone was introverted, asked questions like, “Do you enjoy being alone?”
When people were asked if someone was extraverted, asked questions like, “Do you enjoy large groups of people?”
If you really wanted a rational judgment, you should ask both kinds of questions, regardless of how the prompt was framed.
CONFIRMATION BIAS: PERSON PERCEPTION

○ We pay more attention to negative information than positive information (often deliberately, sometimes automatically).
○ If I get 10 positive teacher evaluations and 1 negative one, I will likely overweight/pay more attention to the negative evaluation and remember the feedback as being more negative overall than it really was.
NEGATIVITY BIAS

Evolutionary Rationale
● Threats need to be dealt with ASAP
● Rewards can be delayed until it is safe to indulge them
NEGATIVITY BIAS

1. Schemas Guide Attention
○ Attention is a limited resource.
○ We automatically allocate attention to relevant stimuli.
○ We are also very good at ignoring irrelevant stimuli.
○ What is relevant? What is irrelevant?
● That’s decided by your activated schemas.
○ Classic Examples: selective attention test, The Monkey Business Illusion
○ Real Life Examples:
● Motorcycle Safety: You’re looking for cars, not bikers
● Lifeguarding: You’re looking for troublemakers, not drowning children
INFLUENCE OF SCHEMAS

2. Schemas Guide Construal
○ New information almost always processed with top-down influences.
○ Example: The “Donald Study”
● Participants were primed with two different word sets
○ ADVENTURE: Independent, Persistent, Self-Confident
○ RECKLESS: Aloof, Stubborn, Conceited
● They then read a story about Donald, who does something ambiguous (like cross the Atlantic alone in a tiny sailboat)
○ When they evaluated Donald, they rated him higher on traits consistent with the schemas they were exposed to.
● Those who saw “adventure” words judged him as adventurous.
● Those who saw “reckless” words judged him as reckless.
INFLUENCE OF SCHEMAS

We remember schema-consistent information better than schema-inconsistent behavior.
● Because schemas influence attention, also influence memory.
● We remember stimuli that capture the most of our attention.
Caveat: Behavior that is heavily schema-inconsistent will also be remembered very well (because it is surprising, which also captures attention).
SCHEMAS AND MEMORY

Cohen, 1981
● Participants watched video of a husband & wife having dinner.
● Half were told that the woman was a librarian, half a waitress.
● The video included an equal number of “events” that were consistent with either “librarian” or “waitress” stereotypes.
● Students later took a test to see what they remembered.
○ Was the woman drinking wine or beer?
○ Did she receive a history book or a romance novel as a gift?
People remember stereotype-consistent information much more than stereotype-inconsistent information
SCHEMAS AND MEMORY

INTUITION AND HEURISTICS

Common “intuitive system” processes
● A grab-bag of mental processes that are commonly used to make quick and efficient judgments & decisions
The most famous/popular heuristics:
1. Representativeness Heuristic
2. Availability Heuristic
3. Simulation Heuristic
4. Anchoring and adjustment Heuristic
+
5. Gaze Heuristic
HEURISTICS

Heuristics
Uncertanity
Gather all information necessary for rational judgment
Decision
Heuristic

Heuristics
Uncertanity
Gather all information necessary for rational judgment
Decision
Heuristic
In certain situations, heuristics lead to predictable biases and
Inconsistencies (Porter, 2008).
Bias

Availability heuristic
The availability heuristic is a phenomenon (which can result in a cognitive bias) in which people predict the frequency of an event, or a proportion within a population, based on how easily an example can be brought to mind.

Availability heuristic

Availability heuristic

Availability heuristic - example
Someone is asked to estimate the proportion of words that begin with the letter "R" or "K" versus those words that have the letter "R" or "K" in the third position. Most English-speaking people could immediately think of many words that begin with the letters "R" (roar, rusty, ribald) or "K" (kangaroo, kitchen, kale), but it would take a more concentrated effort to think of any words where "R" or "K" is the third letter (street, care, borrow, acknowledge); the immediate answer would probably be that words that begin with "R" or "K" are more common. The reality is that words that have the letter "R" or "K" in the third position are more common. In fact, there are three times as many words that have the letter "K" in the third position, as have it in the first position.

Representativeness heuristic - example
Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in antinuclear demonstrations. Please check off the most likely alternative.
Linda is a bank teller.
Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.

Representativeness heuristic - example
(Porter, 2008)

The tendency to judge frequency or likelihood of an event by the extent to which it “resembles” the typical case.
Representativeness Heuristic

The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by the ease with which you can imagine (or mentally simulate) an event.
Example:
In the Olympics, bronze medalists appear to be happier than silver medalists, because it is easier for a silver medalist to imagine being a gold medalist.
Simulation Heuristic

The tendency to judge the frequency or likelihood of an event by using a starting point (called an anchor) and then making adjustments up and down from this starting point.
Example:
If one party in a negotiation starts by suggesting a price or condition, then the other party is likely to base its counteroffer on this anchor.
Anchoring and adjustment Heuristic

● Representativeness often works
● Group prototypes are formed in the first place by averaging across everyone in the group, so there is a kernel of truth
Representativeness Mantra:
“This seems like...”
Why do we have this heuristic?

○ Group Projects
● Because you worked on your portion of a group project, it’s easy for you to recall exactly what you worked on
● Because you didn’t work on your partners’ portions, it’s not easy for you to recall exactly what they worked on
Result: People tend to overestimate their own
contributions to joint projects.
AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC: APPLIED

Marriage & Chores (Ross & Sicoly, 1979)
● Married couples were asked to give the percentage of the household chores that they did
○ Not surprisingly...estimates added up to over 100%
○ Both husbands and wives tended to think that they did more of the chores!
AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC: APPLIED

The gaze heuristic is a heuristic used in directing correct motion to achieve a goal using one main variable. An example of the gaze heuristic is catching a ball. The gaze heuristic is one example where humans and animals are able to process large amounts of information quickly and react, regardless of whether the information is consciously processed.
The gaze heuristic is a critical element in animal behavior, being used in predation heavily. At the most basic level, the gaze heuristic ignores all casual relevant variables to make quick gut reactions.
Gaze heuristic

Gaze heuristic

Gaze heuristic

Gaze heuristic

Gaze heuristic

When a man throws a ball high in the air and catches it again,
he behaves as if he had solved a set of differential equations in predicting the trajectory of the ball... At some subconscious level, something functionally equivalent to the mathematical calculation is going on.
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

gaze heuristic