The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process

Ross, Lee

doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60357-3

Cited by 4,170Social and Intergroup PsychologyDecision-Making and Behavioral EconomicsPsychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process

Ross, Lee·1977·Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

DOI 10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60357-3

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The fundamental attribution error is a tendency to overestimate personal dispositions and underestimate situational factors.
“It is called the fundamental attribution error, a tendency people have to overestimate the influence of personal dispositions and decisions, and to underestimate situational factors (Ross, 1977).”
From Moral Luck (2026) · cites this paper as Ross, 1977
Participants from the United States tend to be more willing to focus on internal explanations for all sorts of behaviours, including misfortune.
“Participants from the United States tend to be more willing to focus on internal explanations for all sorts of behaviours, including misfortune (Gilbert & Malone, 1995;Ross, 1977), whereas Indian and East Asian participants are more likely to attribute circumstances to the situation rather than the person (e.g.Choi & Nisbett, 1998;Miller, 1984;Miyamoto & Kitayama, 2002;Morris & Peng, 1994;Norenz”
From Victim blaming and belief in karma (2024) · cites this paper as Ross, 1977
Social psychology teaches that context is important in determining how people feel, think, and behave.
“Social psychology teaches us how important context is in determining how people feel, think, and behave [45].”
From Using person-specific networks in psychotherapy: challenges, limitations, and how we could use them anyway (2020) · cites this paper as [45]

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Authors: Ross, L.
Affiliations: Stanford University (US)
Corresponding author: Ross, Lee
Venue: Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
Publisher: Elsevier
Published: 1977
Pages: 173-220
ISSN: 0065-2601 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60357-3
OpenAlex: W1555806226
Semantic Scholar: d244d44a3bbb11b05614aca1874a6cbb30399ee2
Cited by: 4,170
References: 117
Citations by year: 2026: 89 · 2025: 100 · 2024: 154 · 2023: 139 · 2022: 145 · 2021: 185 · 2020: 164 · 2019: 152 · 2018: 217 · 2017: 137 · 2016: 136 · 2015: 130 · 2014: 142 · 2013: 129 · 2012: 136
FWCI: 461.42
Type: book chapter
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Advances in experimental social psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Keywords: attribution theory, intuitive psychology, attribution bias, naive psychology, social forecasting, social inference, social theory, cognitive biases

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The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process

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