Actors and observers: Divergent attributions of constrained unfriendly behavior

In light of previous attribution research, the authors investigated whether individuals make different causal inferences about their own, as opposed to other people’s, constrained interpersonal behavior. Fifty-seven male and 59 female introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to act either friendly or unfriendly as they interacted with a same-sex confederate whose behavior was also constrained. Participants assessed their own, and the confederates’, behavior during the interaction and general dispositions. Consistent with previous research on the correspondence bias or fundamental attribution error, and the actor-observer bias, dispositional influences played a more prominent role in participants’ attributions concerning the confederates’ behavior than their own. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed, as are the implications of these findings on interpersonal relations.