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Spouses’ attributions for helping: The effects of styles of help–seeking, self–serving bias, and sex
Author(s) -
Olsson Ingrid I.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00296
Subject(s) - spouse , attribution , psychology , social psychology , attribution bias , context (archaeology) , helping behavior , paleontology , sociology , anthropology , biology
This paper examines the effects of (a) how clearly the desire for help is presented, (b) self–serving bias, and (c) sex differences on the source of the cause of helping happening (or not) that spouses attribute to a potential helper. In two studies, a total of 138 couples imagined situationsin which a person wanted his or her spouse to do a chore. How clearly the desire for help was expressed, whether help was given, and whether it was the participant or the spouse who was expected to help were manipulated. The participants reported their attributions for the cause of helping (or not) to themselves and the spouse on visual analog scales. There was strong support for a proposed interaction between how clearly the desire for help was expressed and whether help was given in predicting spouses’ attributions. No support was obtained for a predicted self–serving bias or for a suggestion that men make more self–enhancing attributions than women; the findings were instead congruent with a relationship–enhancing bias. The findings are discussed in terms of the context of housework.