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Attribution and evaluation in ordinary explanations of voting intention
Author(s) -
Antaki Charles
Publication year - 1985
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.2044-8309.1985.tb00673.x
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , social psychology , voting , perception , extension (predicate logic) , interpretation (philosophy) , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , programming language , neuroscience , politics , political science , law
Intergroup theory and attribution theory were applied to 151 voters' perceptions of the causes of electors' intentions to vote for subjects' own preferred party and other parties. An intergroup extension of actor‐observer attribution theory predicted that the difference in the explanations should be along the external‐internal locus dimension, but in addition it was hypothesized that voters would enhance the differences between themselves and other voters by exaggerating differences in the favourability of the expressed causes. The pattern of internality and evaluation in respondents' accounts of others' intentions only partially supported these predictions. The intergroup differentiation hypothesis was further tested by asking respondents to guess at the accounts of voting that other voters would give. It was predicted that such ascribed attributions would allow greater scope for differentiation, and that subjects would exaggerate the negativity of others' accounts. Results supported this generalized intergroup derogating interpretation for ascribed attributions.