12. Social Psychology

Sid walks into the morning meeting 15 minutes late. His boss, Marco, assumes that traffic was bad this morning. Marco is making _________ in explaining Sid's behavior.

Americans tend to assume that personality is

Karen is late for work, and her co-worker, Jeff, assumes it is because she is careless and lazy. Jeff is drawing a

Ranjan got a bad grade on her test, which she attributes to the fact that she had to work overtime throughout the week and so could not study as much as usual. Ranjan's classmate also got a bad grade on a test, which Ranjan attributes to her classmate's laziness. This type of thinking is an example of

As Phillipa was driving to work the other day, she was passed by a vehicle that swerved uncontrollably until it came to a complete stop on the side of the road. Unaware that the driver's steering wheel was malfunctioning, Phillipa said out loud to herself, 'Some idiots just can't drive and need to stay off the road!' Phillipa's assumption about the other driver is an example of

The fundamental attribution error is less likely to occur

In explaining our own behavior, we tend to use situational rather than personal attributions. This phenomenon is known as