Week 3 Impression Management & Attribution

Do you all remember what we learned
about Heuristics? Tell me about them,

before we move on to the next topic.
ATTRIBUTION
People make it their business to explain other

people, and social psychologists make it their
business to explain people’s explanations. So, how
– and how accurately – do people explain others’
behaviour? Attribution theory suggest some
answers
Case Example
Imagine you meet a colleague for the first time on the first day of
a new job or placement and you say ‘hello’ in a polite and
friendly manner. Your colleague, who you don’t really know yet,
looks at you as if you’ve just hurled the world’s worst insult at
her. She then walks off without saying a word. You in turn are left
wondering what on Earth has just happened. What are you likely
to think?
You are likely to think one of the two
things…
1) Attribute the behaviour to something internal, such as traits,
nature, personality etc.
2) Attribute the behaviour to something external, such as a situation

the individual has been in.
Remember Heuristics & Schema’s here!

Attribution—process through which people seek to identify the
causes of others’ behavior and so gain knowledge of their stable
traits and dispositions (nature)
If someone comes late to class, teacher can say the following:
1.Student must feel uninterested in the class
2.The traffic must have caused the delay
First one is DISPOSITIONAL ATTRIBUTION (attributing behavior

to person’s disposition and traits)
Second one is SITUATIONAL ATTRIBUTION (attributing to the

environment or situation)
What is Misattribution?
• You wave at a friend and they don’t wave back at you. How
would you describe their behavior?
• Lets assume that they just got to know that they failed an
exam. What would the cause be? Situational or
dispositional?
• When a behavior is attributed to the wrong source, it results

in Misattribution.
Some Basic Sources of Error
1) Fundamental Attribution Error: Also known as Correspondence Bias.
When one underestimates situational influences and overestimates
dispositional influences of others behaviors
2) Actor-Observer Effect: Tendency to attribute own behavior mainly to
situational causes, but the behavior of others mainly to internal
(dispositional) causes
3) Self-Serving Bias: Tendency to attribute positive outcomes to internal
causes, but negative outcomes to external causes
Cognitive and motivational factors may explain this bias.
This bias is stronger in individualist cultures.
Theories of Attribution
Jones and Davis’ (1965) Theory of Correspondent Inference—
describes how people use others’ behavior as a basis for inferring
their stable dispositions
Jones and Davis’ theory helps us understand the process of making
an internal attribution. They say that we tend to do this when we see
a correspondence between motive and behavior.
For example, when we see a correspondence between someone

behaving in a friendly way and being a friendly person.
Dispositional (i.e., internal) attributions provide us with information
from which we can make predictions about a person’s future
behavior. The correspondent inference theory describes the
conditions under which we make dispositional attributes to the
behavior we perceive as intentional.
Davis used the term correspondent inference to refer to an occasion

when an observer infers that a person’s behavior matches or
corresponds with their personality.
Fritz Heider (1958) – Pioneer of the attribution theory
uTalks about how people make sense out of everyday events and
use ‘commonsense psychology’
Internal and external cause.
Self-serving bias: Self-serving bias is defined as people’s tendency

to attribute positive events to their own character but attributes
negative events to external factors. (It’s a common type of cognitive
bias that has been extensively studied in social psychology)
ACTIVITY
Write down or think about names of your class fellows when a
particular trait is mentioned
• Assertive
• Calm
• Dedicated
• Warm
• Lazy
• Argumentative
• Aggressive
• Impulsive
• Responsible
Application of Attribution Theory
Depressed persons often show a self-defeating pattern of
attributions, which is the opposite of the self-serving bias.
Attribute negative outcomes to stable, internal causes
Attribute positive outcomes to temporary, external causes

Impression
Formation &
Management
Research about the
“Pygmalian
Effect.”
Self-fulfilling Prophecy, Rosenthal Effect or
Pygmalion Effect
The Pygmalion Effect, also known as the Rosenthal Effect,

refers to the phenomenon of people improving their
performance when others have high expectations of them. For
students, when teaches expect a lot, students often perform
better.
Examples?
Primacy VS Recency
• Primacy Effect- Other things being equal, information presented

first usually has the most influence
• Recency Effect- Information presented last sometimes has the most

influence
• Recency effects are less common than Primacy effects

DID YOU KNOW?
Dana Carney and Banaji (2008) discovered that

order can also effect simple preferences
When presented similar looking bubble gum

pieces, 62% chose the first piece
Tell Me...
• How powerful are spoken words? Do
you think they always have an impact?
• Who was your favourite teacher in
grade 10?
• Do you remember any of her lectures?
• Active engagement captures the other
person's attention and carries an expectation
that he will comprehend the message,
remember it, and then take action.
• Passive reception of a message, like listening

to a lecture, is less likely to have an impact.
Case Example
• Thomas Crawford (1974) and others
• Visited homes of people from 12 churches before and after hearing
sermons
• Sermon’s content- racial prejudice and injustice
• When asked in the AFTER interview ‘have you heard or read anything
about racial discrimination?’ Only 10% recalled that they had just heard
a sermon about it
• Remaining 90% were asked ‘did your priest talk about prejudice in the
last couple of weeks?’ 30% denied such a sermon
• The words did not have much power
Asch’s (1946) Research on Impression Formation
Impression Formation involves more than combining individual

traits.
Implicit Personality Theories—beliefs about what traits or

characteristics tend to go together.
These theories are similar to a schema.
Implicit theories can influence the impressions of others more than
people’s actual traits.
An example is the implicit personality theory people hold regarding
the relationship between birth order and personality traits.
Impression Management (Self-Presentation)—efforts to produce
favorable first impressions on others
Research indicates that it does have positive effects. Tactics of

impression management
• Self-enhancement—boost one’s appeal to others
• Boost physical appearance, boast about abilities
• Other-enhancement—induce positive moods in other
• Use flattery, express liking, agree with their views
• If overused, tactics can boomerang (slime effect can occur).
Any Questions?

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Do you all remember what we learned

about Heuristics? Tell me about them,

People make it their business to explain other

2) Attribute the behaviour to something external, such as a situation

Remember Heuristics & Schema’s here!

First one is DISPOSITIONAL ATTRIBUTION (attributing behavior

Second one is SITUATIONAL ATTRIBUTION (attributing to the

• When a behavior is attributed to the wrong source, it results

For example, when we see a correspondence between someone

Davis used the term correspondent inference to refer to an occasion

Self-serving bias: Self-serving bias is defined as people’s tendency

Attribute negative outcomes to stable, internal causes

Attribute positive outcomes to temporary, external causes

The Pygmalion Effect, also known as the Rosenthal Effect,

• Primacy Effect- Other things being equal, information presented

• Recency Effect- Information presented last sometimes has the most

• Recency effects are less common than Primacy effects

Dana Carney and Banaji (2008) discovered that

When presented similar looking bubble gum

• Passive reception of a message, like listening

Impression Formation involves more than combining individual

Implicit Personality Theories—beliefs about what traits or

Research indicates that it does have positive effects. Tactics of

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