Actor–observer asymmetry

Actor–observer asymmetry (also actor–observer bias) explains the errors that one makes when forming attributions about the behavior of others (Jones & Nisbett 1971). When people judge their own behavior, and they are the actor, they are more likely to attribute their actions to the particular situation than to a generalization about their personality. Yet when an observer is explaining the behavior of another person (the actor), they are more likely to attribute this behavior to the actors' overall disposition rather than to situational factors. This frequent error shows the bias that people hold in their evaluations of behavior (Miller & Norman 1975). Because people are better acquainted with the situational (external) factors affecting their own decisions, they are more likely to see their own behavior as affected by the social situation they are in. However, because the situational effects of anothers' behavior are less accessible to the observer, observers see the actor's behavior as influenced more by the actor's overall personality. The actor-observer asymmetry is a component of the ultimate attribution error.Sometimes the Actor–observer asymmetry is defined as the fundamental attribution error which is when people tend to focus on the internal, personal characteristic or disposition as cause of a behavior rather than the external factors or situational influences. The actor-observer asymmetry tends to happen in events where people express behavioral emotion, such a first meeting, a blind date, a shopping at a supermarket etc... (Jones & Nisbett, 1972). From a study by Jhonson and Sheldon (1993) when asking people which object they have noticed when talking with another person, their common answers were based on their own thought and the other person appearance Actor–observer asymmetry (also actor–observer bias) explains the errors that one makes when forming attributions about the behavior of others (Jones & Nisbett 1971). When people judge their own behavior, and they are the actor, they are more likely to attribute their actions to the particular situation than to a generalization about their personality. Yet when an observer is explaining the behavior of another person (the actor), they are more likely to attribute this behavior to the actors' overall disposition rather than to situational factors. This frequent error shows the bias that people hold in their evaluations of behavior (Miller & Norman 1975). Because people are better acquainted with the situational (external) factors affecting their own decisions, they are more likely to see their own behavior as affected by the social situation they are in. However, because the situational effects of anothers' behavior are less accessible to the observer, observers see the actor's behavior as influenced more by the actor's overall personality. The actor-observer asymmetry is a component of the ultimate attribution error.Sometimes the Actor–observer asymmetry is defined as the fundamental attribution error which is when people tend to focus on the internal, personal characteristic or disposition as cause of a behavior rather than the external factors or situational influences. The actor-observer asymmetry tends to happen in events where people express behavioral emotion, such a first meeting, a blind date, a shopping at a supermarket etc... (Jones & Nisbett, 1972). From a study by Jhonson and Sheldon (1993) when asking people which object they have noticed when talking with another person, their common answers were based on their own thought and the other person appearance This term falls under 'attribution' or 'attribution theory'. The specific hypothesis of an actor-observer asymmetry in attribution (explanations of behavior) was originally proposed by Jones and Nisbett (1971), when they claimed that 'actors tend to attribute the causes of their behavior to stimuli inherent in the situation, while observers tend to attribute behavior to stable dispositions of the actor” (Jones & Nisbett 1971, p. 93). Supported by initial evidence, the hypothesis was long held as firmly established, describing a robust and pervasive phenomenon of social cognition. However, a meta-analysis of all the published tests of the hypothesis between 1971 and 2004 (Malle 2006) yielded a contradictory finding: there was no actor-observer asymmetry of the sort Jones & Nisbett (1971) had proposed. Malle (2006) interpreted this result not so much as proof that actors and observers explained behavior exactly the same way but as evidence that the original hypothesis was fundamentally flawed in the way it framed people's explanations of behavior—namely, as attributions to either stable dispositions or to the situation. Against the background of a different theory of explanation, Malle et al. (2007) tested an alternative set of three actor-observer asymmetries and found consistent support for all of them. Thus, the actor-observer asymmetry does not exist in one theoretical formulation (traditional attribution theory) but does exist in the new alternative theoretical formulation. Malle (2011) argues that this favors the alternative theoretical formulation, but current textbooks have not yet fully addressed this theoretical challenge. Considerations of actor-observer differences can be found in other disciplines as well, such as philosophy (e.g. privileged access, incorrigibility), management studies, artificial intelligence, semiotics, anthropology, and political science. The background of this hypothesis was in the 1960s, with social psychology's increasing interest in the cognitive mechanisms by which people make sense of their own and other people's behavior. This interest was instigated by Fritz Heider's (1958) book, The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, and the research in its wake has become known as 'attribution research' or 'attribution theory.' The specific hypothesis of an 'actor–observer asymmetry' was first proposed by social psychologists Jones and Nisbett in 1971. Jones and Nisbett hypothesized that these two roles (actors and observers) produce asymmetric explanations. Their research findings showed that “there is pervasive tendency for actors to attribute their actions to situational requirements, whereas observers tend to attribute the same actions to stable personal dispositions”. For example, a student who studies hard for an exam is likely to explain her own (the actor's) intensive studying by referring to the upcoming difficult exam (a situational factor), whereas other people (the observers) are likely to explain her studying by referring to her dispositions, such as being hardworking or ambitious. Soon after the publication of the actor-observer hypothesis, numerous research studies tested its validity, most notably the first such test by Nisbett et al. (1973). The authors found initial evidence for the hypothesis, and so did Storms (1973), who also examined one possible explanation of the hypothesis: that actors explain their behaviors by reference to the situation because they attend to the situation (not to their own behaviors) whereas observers explain the actor's behavior by reference to the actor's dispositions because they attend to the actor's behavior (not to the situation). Based largely on this initial supporting evidence, the confidence in the hypothesis became uniformly high. The asymmetry was described as “robust and quite general”, 'firmly established' and “an entrenched part of scientific psychology”. Likewise, evidence for the asymmetry was considered to be 'plentiful” and “pervasive”. Over 100 studies have been published since 1971 in which the hypothesis was put to further tests (often in the context of testing another hypothesis about causal attributions). Malle (2006) examined this entire literature in a meta-analysis, which is a robust way of identifying consistent patterns of evidence regarding a given hypothesis across a broad set of studies. The result of this analysis was stunning: across 170 individual tests, the asymmetry practically did not exist. (The average effect sizes, computed in several accepted ways, ranged from d = -0.016 to d = 0.095; corrected for publication bias, the average effect size was 0.) Under circumscribed conditions(i.e. if the actor was portrayed as highly idiosyncratic, or in negative events), it could sometimes be found, but under other conditions, the opposite was found. The conclusion was that the widely held assumption of an actor-observer asymmetry in attribution was false. In contrast to the Malle (2006) article, other research has shown a strong presence of the actor-observer asymmetry even in instances with familiar people. Krueger et al. (1996) conducted a study on pairs of university dorm roommates who liked and knew one another well. The researchers aimed for familiar pairs of participants was to discover whether or not actor-observer asymmetry existed in conditions that might atypically work against it. Previous literature suggests that actor-observer asymmetry would not be present in situations where the actors and the observers were familiar with each other, which is why Krueger and colleagues wanted to perform the study with familiar pairs. Each participant answered three questionnaires where the final scores were weighed against each other in order to understand the presence of actor-observer asymmetry. The results showed that gender did not affect the findings, so whether or not the pairs were the same or opposite sex was not a mediator for the data. The researchers found that actors were aware of the actor-observer asymmetry, but the observers were not, which is typically what happens in everyday life. Krueger and colleagues showed another side to the actor-observer asymmetry, wherein it is present even among familiar people.