Consistent with the perceptual salience hypothesis, Taylor and Fiske found that the two observers sitting behind A, watching B, rated B as more causal, while those sitting behind B, watching A, They also rated how much each confederate (a) set the tone of the conversation, (b) determined the kind of information exchanged and (c) caused the other’s behaviour. ![]() Observer was asked to rate each confederate on various traitdimensions, and the extent to which their behaviour was caused by dispositional and situational factors. After A and B had interacted for five minutes, each Observers sat either behind confederate A with confederate B in their direct visual field, or behind B, watching A, or to the side, between A and B with both in sight. ![]() situational attributions for actors and dispositional attributions for observers.Taylor and Fiske (1975) attempted to test the perceptual saliencehypothesis by placing observers at three different vantage points around two male confederates who sat facing each other engaged in conversation. These different vantage points for actors andobservers appear to lead to different attributional tendencies, i.e. Other people’s behaviour is more dynamic and salient than the situation or context. From an actor’s point of view, what is most salient and available are the situational influences on behaviour – the objects, the people, the role requirements and the social setting. As actors, we can’t see ourselves acting. There are several competing explanations for the AOE, but we will outline just two of them here.Īs for the FAE, one explanation is perceptual and essentially argues that actors and observers quite literally have ‘different points of view’ (Storms, 1973). For example, psychologists and psychiatrists are more likely to attribute their clients’ problems to internal stable dispositions, whereas the clients are more likely to attribute their own problems to situational factors (Antonio & Innes, 1978). This bias has been found in both laboratory experiments (Nisbett et al., 1973) and applied clinical settings. Instead, we often conclude that the person is intolerant, impatient, unreasonable, selfish, etc. ![]() This is called the actor–observer effect (AOE).Ĭonsider how easily we explain our own socially undesirable behaviour (such as angry outbursts) to extenuating, stressful circumstances, and yet we are less sympathetic when others behave in this way. While we tend to attribute other people’s behaviour to dispositional factors, we tend to attribute our own behaviour to situational factors ( Jones & Nisbett, 1972).
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