In: Psychology
Discuss correspondence bias and the actor–observer effect
Correspondence bias
In social psychology, correspondence bias is defined as the tendency of people to form opinions about other people based on their behavior and actions rather than the external factors such as the environment or situation they are in. It causes people to believe that a person behaves in a certain way because of his or her character. The notion that an action was the result of a certain situation is ignored, thus creating a bias.
For example, you have lost your way, and you ask a stranger on the road for directions. The stranger refuses to help as he is in a rush. You simply assume that the stranger is a selfish and rude person. You start believing that his behavior is indicative of his personality. Perhaps, he was getting late for a job interview or he was rushing to a hospital for emergency. Such external factors that may have influenced his actions are not taken into consideration. However, when you are in the stranger’s position, you consider it perfectly normal to react that way because of the situation you were in. This is correspondence bias.
Actor–observer effect
This is the opposite of correspondence bias. In actor-observer bias, a person blames his or her behavior on a situation rather than his or her personality. For example, if you are late to school, you blame the school bus or the alarm. You don’t attribute this to your qualities of laziness or tardiness. Thus, you attribute your behavior to a situation when you are the actor, and you attribute a person’s actions to his or her character when you are the observer. This is the actor–observer bias.