The Actor-Observer Effect

Chapter 15 notes that although we tend to attribute others' behavior to personal or dispositional factors, we typically attribute our own behavior to situational factors. This well-known attribution bias, better known as the actor-observer effect, can be readily demonstrated in class by using an activity suggested by Mary Kite. Photocopy and distribute two copies of Handout 15-1 to each student. Ask them to fill out the questionnaire twice, once for a well-known celebrity (e.g., Katie Couric, Michael Jackson, Heather Locklear, Michael Jordan, etc.) and once for themselves. After students have completed both questionnaires, ask them to count the number of times they chose "depends on the situation" for themselves versus for the well-known celebrity. If your results are consistent with the actor-observer effect (they almost always are), you should find that students are much more willing to ascribe a trait to someone else than they are for themselves. Ask them to explain why this is the case (e.g., they see themselves behaving in a variety of different situations, whereas they typically only see the celebrities' on-camera persona). You can also expand this demonstration by having students complete the questionnaire using their best friend as the target person; this will nicely demonstrate that attributions are affected by the degree to which we know someone personally.

Kite, M. E. (1991). Observer biases in the classroom. Teaching of Psychology, 18, 161-164.