Attributional biases are cognitive biases which affect attribution
-- the way we determine who or what was responsible for an event
or action. Such biases typically rely on actor/observer differences -- people
involved in an action view things differently from those people
outside (observers).
Often they are caused by asymmetry in availability (frequently
called "salience" in this context). The behavior of actors
is easier to remember than the background settings; or, our own
inner turmoil is more available to ourselves than it is to others.
As a result, our judgments of attribution are often distorted along
those lines.
In some experiments, for example, subjects were shown only one
side of a conversation or were able to see one of the faces of the
conversational participants. Whomever the subjects had a better
view of were judged by them as being more important, influential,
and having a greater role in the conversation.
Interestingly, there is some evidence that more intelligent and
socially apt people are more likely to make errors in attribution.
The most well-known and representative example of an attributional
bias is the fundamental attribution error.
Attributional biases include:
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