Practise applying attribution theory to social scenarios by distinguishing dispositional and situational explanations and identifying attribution biases.
Ruth is bored at home alone, so she decides to watch a scary movie. At the most tense part of the movie, when
a large, scary-looking creature is being chased through the village by an angry mob, Ruth's roommate Lynn
comes home unexpectedly and flips on the lights. Ruth is startled and spills her hot chocolate on herself.
Part B
As they are cleaning up, Ruth tells Lynn the plot of the movie she was watching. While the creature
was large and scary-looking, he was actually quite gentle and friendly. The villagers discussed the
situation and concluded that the creature was going to hurt them, so they grabbed their torches and
pitchforks and chased him out of town. As the creature tried to escape, he tripped over a rock and
knocked down a villager.
Explain how each of the following concepts relates to the villagers' perceptions during this scene in the
movie.
- Out-group homogeneity bias
- Fundamental attribution error
Fundamental attribution error
response must indicate that the villagers perceive the creature's behavior as due to
some dispositional quality rather than the situation.
Acceptable explanations include:
Responses must contrast dispositional and situational attributions to score.
- The villagers assume that the creature knocked the villager over because he is
evil rather than because he was being chased.
Unacceptable explanations include:
- The villagers think the creature is mean.