You decide to call off the plan because you are tired. ❍ You make a dinner plan with your partner, but by the time you reach home in the evening, you are exhausted. However, when you yourself speed past another guy who is driving at normal speed, it’s unlikely that you would consider yourself foolish, because you are obviously in a hurry to get somewhere. ❍ When you are going at a normal speed, and another car speeds past you, you consider that person foolish for his rash driving. In this case, it’s unlikely that you will have any qualms about being late, because you had a genuine reason―whatever it maybe. Let’s say your friend makes it on time, but you are 20 minutes late. He does apologize for this, but his apology falls on deaf ears, and you have already concluded that this friend of yours has no regard for you or your time. You even reach 10 minutes before the scheduled time, but your friend turns up 20 minutes late. the false consensus effect According to the self-serving bias, we tend to dispositional influences when the outcome of our behavior is positive and to situational influences when the outcome of our behavior is negative. ❍ You come in contact with an old friend after a long time and decide to catch up. It’s worth noting that, it doesn’t come into the picture when we are dealing with people whom we know very well. Observer bias occurs when the researcher’s assumptions, views, or preconceptions influence what they see and record in a study, while actorobserver bias refers to situations where respondents attribute internal factors (e.g., bad character) to justify other’s behavior and external factors (difficult circumstances) to justify the same. We assume that other people are nearly always one-dimensional, and thus, predictable.Īctor-observer bias is mostly seen in the case of negative situations.

When we are dealing with other people, we have no idea about the context, and therefore, we tend to assume that internal causes, i.e., their disposition, is responsible for their action. That we are well-versed with the context and prior experiences also helps. Therefore, we focus on the situation (external/environmental factor) as the reason of our behavior. We believe that other people’s behavior is all about their internal causes, but attribute our own behavior to external factors.Īs we are not able to observe our behavior directly, we cannot make internal attributions about our own behavior. As opposed to this, when we are judging our own behavior, i.e., when we are the actor, we attribute our actions to the prevailing situation. When we are judging other people’s behavior, i.e., when we are observers, we are more likely to attribute it to their character. In social psychology, actor-observer bias or actor-observer asymmetry refers to our tendency of attributing the other person’s behavior to his personal disposition, and his own behavior to the situation he is facing.

Actorobserve bias quizlet