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8B · Thinking about ourselves and others
Social thinking
How we explain others' behavior (attribution), and how stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination form and feed back on themselves.
Attribution theory & biases
We explain behavior as dispositional (internal — personality) or situational (external — circumstances), and we do so with predictable biases.
Attribution theory describes how we infer the causes of behavior — dispositional vs. situational. Kelley's covariation model says we decide using three cues: consensus (do others act this way too?), consistency (does this person always act this way?), and distinctiveness (only in this situation?) — low consensus + high consistency + low distinctiveness points to a dispositional cause. The biases:
- Fundamental attribution error — overweighting dispositional causes for others' behavior while underweighting the situation.
- Actor-observer bias — attributing our own behavior to the situation but others' to disposition.
- Self-serving bias — crediting our successes to disposition and blaming failures on the situation.
Related cognitive biases (not strictly attributional): the just-world hypothesis (belief that people get what they deserve) and optimism bias (bad outcomes happen to others, not us).
Cultural differences: individualist cultures lean dispositional; collectivist cultures weight situational/contextual causes more.
How AAMC tests it
A scenario shows someone explaining a behavior; identify the bias. Tell fundamental attribution error (about others, ignoring situation) from self-serving bias (about the self, protecting esteem).
Stereotypes, prejudice & discrimination
Stereotype = a belief (cognitive); prejudice = an attitude/feeling; discrimination = a behavior. Cognitive → affective → behavioral.
A stereotype is a generalized belief about a group; prejudice is a (usually negative) attitude toward a group; discrimination is differential treatment (action) based on group membership. Related: ethnocentrism (judging other cultures by your own standards) vs. cultural relativism (judging a culture by its own standards); in-group favoritism and out-group homogeneity. Self-perpetuating mechanisms: the self-fulfilling prophecy (expectations elicit confirming behavior) and stereotype threat (anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype impairs performance). Discrimination can be individual or institutional (cross-ref 10A).
Don't confuse
Prejudice (an attitude — what you feel/believe) vs. discrimination (a behavior — what you do). AAMC tests this attitude-vs-action line directly. Also ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism (judging others by your standards vs. by their standards).
Worked question
When another driver cuts Maria off, she thinks "what a reckless person." An hour later she cuts someone off herself and thinks "I had no choice — I'm running late." This pattern reflects: