Читать книгу The Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 126

According to attribution theory, we like to be able to explain why things happen. We assign meaning to behavior, coming up with possible motives and causes. When we attribute behavior to something in the disposition of others, we assume their behavior to have an internal cause—it is caused by something about them and their characteristics. When we attribute it to something about the situation or environment, we identify an external cause—and ascribe it as being the result of something outside of the person.

When we assume too often that the primary motivation for another’s behavior is in the person, and not the situation, we commit a fundamental attribution error. We overemphasize factors internal to the individual and discount the role played by the situation. For example, a friend disappoints us by failing to show up on time to a study group. We’re more likely to decide it’s because our friend is inconsiderate rather than to believe that external factors, like the bus running late, are the cause.

It’s different, however, when we ascribe reasons for our own behavior. When offering reasons for why we behave as we do, we are more likely to overemphasize external factors and downplay internal ones. This tendency, known as the self-serving bias, functions to raise our own self-esteem. We take credit for the positive while denying culpability for the negative. When it comes to ourselves, we attribute any negatives to factors beyond our control.

We also are prone to committing over-attribution errors—the attributing of everything a person does to a single or a few specific factors. For example, we might ascribe a person’s alcohol use, poor grades, lackluster job performance, and lack of interest in close relationships to a broken romance.¹⁷

Quite simply, when it comes to interpreting the behavior of others and ourselves, we find behavior’s causes where we look for them.