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An Experimental Study of the Inferential Asymmetry in Attribution Judgment

Research Project

Project/Area Number 12610122
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field 教育・社会系心理学
Research InstitutionGakushuin University (2001-2002)
Osaka University (2000)

Principal Investigator

TOYAMA Midori  Gakushuin University, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (20132061)

Project Period (FY) 2000 – 2002
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2002)
Budget Amount *help
¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Keywordssocial cognition / attribution process / inference / cognitive bias / prediction / perceptual salience / 対人認知
Research Abstract

The distinction between dispositional and situational attribution has been widely accepted in attribution theory. However, previous research found asymmetry in weighing each type of causal factors, suggesting overemphasis upon dispositional causes. Fundamental attribution error is one of its manifestations. Three experiments were conducted to elucidate this inferential asymmetry found in attribution research. In Experiment 1, the relationship between causal attribution and prediction of behavior was examined. Participants were given information about several persons' behaviors in particular situations, some of which were personality-implying behaviors and others were emotions. One group of participants was asked to predict behavior from the person across situations and other participants predicted behavior from the situation across people. Results indicated that participants were more confident predicting personality-implying behavior from people than from situations but were more conf … More ident predicting emotions from situations than from people. Two-way ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between the direction of prediction and behavior types. The main effect of the direction of prediction was also significant, indicating that participants tended to predict behavior more readily from people than from situations. With regards to causal attribution, participants attributed emotions more to situations and personality-implying behaviors more to people. In Experiment 2 and 3, the effects of perceptual salience upon the inferential asymmetry were examined. Participants watched the video-recorded conversation between two persons (Exp.2) or computer graphics involving four characters (Exp.3). One of the characters was made perceptually salient and the effects of the salience upon correspondent inference and dominance rating were measured. Results indicated that the actual utterance of each person was the main determinant of dominance rating and the effect of perceptual salience was negligible. More research is needed to explore the salience effects further. Less

Report

(4 results)
  • 2002 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report Summary
  • 2001 Annual Research Report
  • 2000 Annual Research Report
  • Research Products

    (3 results)

All Other

All Publications (3 results)

  • [Publications] 外山みどり, 山田歩: "知覚的顕現性と社会的推論"日本グループ・ダイナミックス学会第50回大会発表論文集. 156-157 (2003)

    • Related Report
      2002 Annual Research Report
  • [Publications] 坂本正浩, 外山みどり: "視覚的salienceが人物関連情報の判断に及ぼす効果-コンピュータグラフィックスを用いた検討-"日本グループ・ダイナミックス学会第50回大会発表論文集. 142-143 (2003)

    • Related Report
      2002 Annual Research Report
  • [Publications] 外山みどり: "行動の予測と原因帰属"日本心理学会第67回大会. (発表予定). (2003)

    • Related Report
      2002 Annual Research Report

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Published: 2001-04-01   Modified: 2016-04-21  

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