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Social categorization and personal similarity as determinants of attribution bias: A test of defensive attribution
Author(s) -
Fincham Frank,
Hewstone Miles
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1982.tb00512.x
Subject(s) - carelessness , attribution , psychology , categorization , similarity (geometry) , social psychology , blame , situational ethics , relevance (law) , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , linguistics , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , computer science , political science , law , image (mathematics) , philosophy
Shaver's (1970) defensive attribution hypothesis was tested systematically. Personal similarity, situational relevance and outcome severity were manipulated. Also studied was the importance of social categorization as a determinant of responsibility attribution bias, as an extension of ‘minimal’ intergroup studies. Seventy‐six schoolboys were assigned to the cells of a 2 (categorization) ×2 (similarity) factorial design. Each subject read three accidents ostensibly involving unidentified others from the same experimental condition. Judgements of blame, situational relevance, perceived similarity and carelessness were elicited. Neither similarity nor situational relevance affected attributions, but similarity had an effect on carelessness ratings ( P < 0.05). Outcome severity affected blame ( P < 0.025) and carelessness ( P < 0.01). Categorization had no effect. Thus, no support for the defensive attribution hypothesis nor for attributional bias based on such minimal similarity and categorization manipulations was found.