Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

466 CHAPTER 11 Social PsychologyTable 11.1Common Attributional Biases and Explanatory PatternsBiasFundamental attribution errorBlaming the victimHindsight biasSelf-serving biasSelf-effacing (or modesty) biasDescriptionWe tend to explain the behavior of other people by attributingtheir behavior to internal, personal characteristics, while underestimatingor ignoring the effects of external, situational factors.Pattern is reversed when accounting for our own behavior.We tend to blame the victims of misfortune for causing their ownmisfortune or for not taking steps to prevent or avoid it. Partlydue to the just-world hypothesis.After an event has occurred, we tend to overestimate the extentto which we could have foreseen or predicted the outcome.We have a tendency to take credit for our successes by attributingthem to internal, personal causes, along with a tendency to distanceourselves from our failures by attributing them to external,situational causes. Self-serving bias is more common in individualisticcultures.We tend to blame ourselves for our failures, attributing them tointernal, personal causes, while downplaying our successes byattributing them to external, situational causes. Self-effacing biasis more common in collectivistic cultures.The Social Psychology of AttitudesKey Theme• An attitude is a learned tendency to evaluate objects, people, or issues in aparticular way.Key Questions• What are the three components of an attitude?• Under what conditions are attitudes most likely to determine behavior?• What is cognitive dissonance?attitudeA learned tendency to evaluate some object,person, or issue in a particular way;such evaluations may be positive, negative,or ambivalent.Should high school graduation requirements include a class on basic sex education,birth control methods, and safe sex? Should there be a compulsory military or communityservice requirement for all young adults? Should there be national healthcare coverage for all U.S. citizens? Should affordable, high-quality day care centersbe a national priority? Should affordable, high-quality elder care centers be anational priority?On these and many other subjects, you’ve probably formed an attitude. Psychologistsformally define an attitude as a learned tendency to evaluate some object,person, or issue in a particular way (Krosnick & others, 2005; Olson & Zanna,1993; Zimbardo & Leippe, 1991). Attitudes are typically positive or negative, butthey can also be ambivalent, as when you have mixed feelings about an issue or person(Ajzen, 2001).As shown in Figure 11.1, attitudes can include three components. First, an attitudemay have a cognitive component: your thoughts and conclusions about a given topic orobject. For example, one of our colleagues, Aaron, is a staunch environmentalist. Onmore than one occasion, Aaron has said, “In my opinion, cars and trucks need to bemuch more fuel-efficient so that we can reduce or eliminate air pollution in our cities.”Second, an attitude may have an emotional or affective component, as when Aaronstarts ranting about drivers he sees on the highway: “It makes me furious to see peopledriving those huge SUVs to work, especially when they don’t even have passengers!”Finally, an attitude may have a behavioral component, in which attitudes are