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Dispositional attribution is the belief that behavior is due to innate personality traits, while situational attribution is based on external factors. This phenomenon can lead to biases and affect social attitudes, such as in debates about welfare programs. Understanding attribution is important in social psychology.
Dispositional attribution is the tendency to suggest that behavior is the result of innate personality traits. For example, if someone is in line at the movie theater and another person cuts, the victim might assume that the clipper is inconsiderate or rude, and that these internal traits led to the decision to skip the line. The opposite is situational attribution, where people decide that behavior is based on situational factors. In the film line example, the victim may notice that the cutter was bumped into by someone else and may not have intended to push into the line.
Understanding attribution is an important part of social psychology, the study of human behaviors in social and group settings. Complex factors play a role in how people decide to attribute their own behavior, as well as the behavior of the people around them. When someone evaluates another party after committing an action, considerations such as race, gender, and ethnicity can determine how the observer decides to explain the action.
Situational and dispositional play a role in the fundamental attribution error, a known phenomenon in social psychology. People have a tendency to blame innate traits for the failures of others, demonstrating dispositional attribution: “He can’t get a job because she’s lazy” or “She’s too mean to be a good teacher.” On the contrary, when asked to explain their behavior, they state that it was the situation: “I can’t find a job because the market is tight”; “I had trouble teaching that class because the students were disruptive.”
The phenomenon of dispositional attribution can play a role in numerous social attitudes. In debates about welfare programs, for example, some people may engage in dispositional attribution and argue that recipients of government benefits are lazy or fraudulent and don’t really need help. Proponents of such programs might argue that situational factors such as employment inequalities are responsible for social inequality.
In any situation where individuals interact and engage in activities, they make a series of snap judgments about each other, and attributions are among these judgments. In addition to the fundamental attribution error, there may be a tendency to suggest that positive personal behaviors are the result of intrinsically good traits, while personal failures are clearly the result of situations. Conversely, when other people do well, it can be attributed to the situation, while failures are considered to be the consequence of negative character traits. The tendency to place more emphasis on situational or dispositional attribution, depending on who is involved and what they are doing, can reveal biases, some of which may be internalized rather than overt.
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