Theory-based bias correction in dispositional inference: The fundamental attribution error is dead, long live the correspondence bias

Gawronski, Bertram

doi:10.1080/10463280440000026

Cited by 162Social and Intergroup PsychologyPsychology of Social InfluencePsychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

Theory-based bias correction in dispositional inference: The fundamental attribution error is dead, long live the correspondence bias

Gawronski, Bertram·2004·European Review of Social Psychology

DOI 10.1080/10463280440000026

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Abstract

Social psychological research has repeatedly shown that perceivers draw correspondent dispositional inferences from observed behaviour even when this behaviour was highly constrained by situational factors (i.e., the correspondence bias). Even though this phenomenon has been proposed to be multiply determined, the most common explanation is still that perceivers ubiquitously consider situational factors to have little impact on human behaviour (i.e., the fundamental attribution error). The present chapter offers a critical analysis of the available empirical evidence on the correspondence bias from the perspective of theory-based bias correction. It is concluded that the correspondence bias results from a number of different processes associated with the application of perceivers' causal theories about situational influences on human behaviour. However, there is no evidence for the assumption that the correspondence bias is due to causal theories implying that situational factors have little impact on human behaviour. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.

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Yaacov Trope, B., Cohen, O., & Alfieri, T. J. (1991) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.61.6.873 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Observer bias in the attitude attribution paradigm: Effect of time and information order.
JONES, E. E., Riggs, J. M., & Quattrone, G. A. (1979) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.7.1230 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Toward an understanding of the fundamental attribution error: Essay diagnosticity in the attitude attribution paradigm
Miller, A. G., & Rorer, L. G. (1982) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/0092-6566(82)90039-3 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Relative use of necessity and sufficiency information in causal judgments about natural categories.
McGill, A. L. (1998) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.70 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
The role of applicability in the emergence of the overattribution bias.
Leyens, J., Yzerbyt, V. Y., & Corneille, O. (1996) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.70.2.219 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
SWIMMING UPSTREAM AGAINST THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR: SUBJECTS' WEAK GENERALIZATIONS FROM THE DARLEY AND BATSON STUDY
Pietromonaco, P. R., & Nisbett, R. E. (1982) · Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal · doi:10.2224/sbp.1982.10.1.1 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Attributing Evil to the Subject, Not the Situation
Safer, M. A. (1980) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/014616728062003 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
The dispositional inference strikes back: Situational focus and dispositional suppression in causal attribution.
Yzerbyt, V. Y., Corneille, O., Dumont, M., & Hahn, K. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.81.3.365 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Choice and Attitude Attributions: The Influence of Constraint Information on Attributions Across Levels of Generality
Cantor, N. L., Pittman, T. S., & JONES, E. E. (1982) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.1982.1.1.1 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
On Difficult Questions and Evident Answers: Dispositional Inference from Role-Constrained Behavior
Gawronski, B. (2003) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167203256375 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Self-citation
Matching words to phenomena: The case of the fundamental attribution error.
Harvey, J. H., & McGlynn, R. P. (1982) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.43.2.345 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
The dispositional inference strikes back: Situational focus and dispositional suppression in causal attribution.
Yzerbyt, V. Y., Corneille, O., Dumont, M., et al. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.3.365 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
On Partitioning the Fundamental Attribution Error: Dispositionalism and the Correspondence Bias
Krull, D. S. (2013) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781410605887-20 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Dispositional bias in person perception: A hypothesis-testing perception.
Yaacov Trope, B. (1998) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/10286-002 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Leakage Beliefs and the Correspondence Bias
Lord, C. G., Scott, K. O., Pugh, M. A., & Desforges, D. M. (1997) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167297238004 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
The attribution of friendliness
Napolitan, D. A., & Goethals, G. R. (1979) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/0022-1031(79)90022-2 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Dispositional bias in person perception: A hypothesis-testing perspective
Yaacov Trope, B. (1998) · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Sequential Correspondence Biases and Perceptions of Change: The Castro Studies Revisited
Allison, S. T., Mackie, D. M., Muller, M. M., & Worth, L. T. (1993) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167293192003 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Dispositional vs. Situational Interpretations of Milgram's Obedience Experiments: “The Fundamental Attributional Error”
Sabini, J. P., & Silver, M. (1983) · Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour · doi:10.1111/j.1468-5914.1983.tb00468.x · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Context Effects for Attributions of Ability
Reeder, G. D. (1979) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/014616727900500114 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Personal Attitudes, Constraint Magnitude, and Correspondence Bias
Alicke, M. D., Zerbst, J. I., & LoSchiavo, F. M. (1996) · Basic and Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15324834basp1802_7 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Prozesse der Urteilsbildung über bekannte und unbekannte Personen
Gawronski, B., Alshut, E., Grafe, J., et al. (2002) · Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie · doi:10.1024//0044-3514.33.1.25 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Self-citation
Social Roles, Social Norms, and Self-Presentation in the Quiz Effect of Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz
Gibbins, K., & Walker, I. A. (1996) · The Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/00224545.1996.9714046 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
The fundamental attribution error: An investigation of sensitivity to role‐conferred advantages in self‐presentation
Sumpton, R. C., & Gregson, M. (1981) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8309.1981.tb00466.x · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Actors and Observers Revisited: Correspondence Bias, Counterfactual Surprise, and Discounting in Successive Judgments of Constrained Behavior
Fleming, J. H., & Darley, J. M. (1993) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.1993.11.4.367 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
The effects of enthusiam and quality of arguments on attitude attribution1
Schneider, D. J., & Miller, R. S. (1975) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1975.tb00730.x · Cited by 8 · see citing works
What Does it Take to Reduce Observer Bias?
Croxton, J. S., & Morrow, N. (1984) · Psychological Reports · doi:10.2466/pr0.1984.55.1.135 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Resisting influence: Judgmental Correction and its Goals
Forgas, J. P., & Williams, K. D. (2016) · Social Influence · doi:10.4324/9781315783031-22 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
A dual-process model of overconfident attributions
Yaacov Trope, B., & Gaunt, R. A. (1999) · Cited by 1 · see citing works

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10.1037/0022-3514.76.3.377 · DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.56.1.27 · DOI
Gilbert DT, 1995, Attribution and interpersonal perception
Haney C., 1973, International Journal of Criminology and Penology, 1, 69
10.1037/0022-3514.43.2.345 · DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.68.3.377 · DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.70.2.219 · DOI
10.1037/0022-3514.61.6.873 · DOI

Sorted by citations

Biosocial construction of sex differences and similarities in behavior
Wood, W., & Eagly, A. H. (2012) · Advances in experimental social psychology · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-394281-4.00002-7 · Cited by 770 · see citing works
“Driving the match between the division of labor and gender beliefs is an important principle of human judgment, known as correspondent inference, or the belief that others' external behavior corresponds with their internal characteristics (Gawronski, 2004; Gilbert, 1998).”
The Internet-of-Things: Review and research directions
Ng, I. C. L., & Wakenshaw, S. Y. L. (2017) · International Journal of Research in Marketing · doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.003 · Cited by 621 · see citing works
Spontaneous Inferences, Implicit Impressions, and Implicit Theories
Uleman, J. S., Sarıbay, S. A., & Gonzalez, C. M. (2007) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093707 · Cited by 501 · see citing works
“Gawronski (2004) focuses on implicit theories of situational influences.”
Background
The i-frame and the s-frame: How focusing on individual-level solutions has led behavioral public policy astray
Chater, N., & Loewenstein, G. (2023) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x22002023 · Cited by 710 · see citing works
The social identity theory of leadership: Theoretical origins, research findings, and conceptual developments
Hogg, M. A., van Knippenberg, D., & Rast, D. E. (2012) · European Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/10463283.2012.741134 · Cited by 465 · see citing works
“As in other areas of social perception and inference, people are more likely to infer a correspondence between distinctive people’s behaviour and invariant underlying personality attributes or ‘‘essences’’ (e.g., Gawronski, 2004; Gilbert & Malone, 1995; Haslam, Bastian, & Bissett, 2004).”
Background
Are “implicit” attitudes unconscious?
Gawronski, B., Hofmann, W., & Wilbur, C. J. (2006) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2005.11.007 · Cited by 401 · see citing works
Self-citation
When Humanizing Brands Goes Wrong: The Detrimental Effect of Brand Anthropomorphization amid Product Wrongdoings
Puzakova, M., Kwak, H., & Rocereto, J. F. (2012) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1509/jm.11.0510 · Cited by 389 · see citing works
“People have a fundamental tendency to attribute others’ behaviors to stable traits rather than to unstable contextual influences (Gawronski 2004); therefore, consumers may attribute product wrongdoings to stable traits of humanized brands and consider them responsible.”
Background
Back to the Future of Dissonance Theory: Cognitive Consistency as a Core Motive
Gawronski, B. (2012) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.2012.30.6.652 · Cited by 342 · see citing works
“This example demonstrates not only that the processes underlying correspondent dispositional inferences are much more complex and sophisticated than it is implied by the widespread assumption that people underestimate the role of situational factors (see Gawronski, 2004).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSelf-citation
Gender and leadership emergence: A meta-analysis and explanatory model
Badura, K. L., Grijalva, E., Newman, D. A., Yan, T. T., & Jeon, G. (2018) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/peps.12266 · Cited by 288 · see citing works
“A fundamental tenet of this theory is that gender differences derive from the gendered division of labor within societies, which observers then attribute to intrinsic variations between men and women (Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Gawronski, 2004; Gilbert, 1998).”
Background
The inherence heuristic: An intuitive means of making sense of the world, and a potential precursor to psychological essentialism
Cimpian, A., & Salomon, E. (2014) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x13002197 · Cited by 251 · see citing works
Breaking rules for the right reasons? An investigation of pro-social rule breaking
Dahling, J. J., Chau, S., Mayer, D. M., & Gregory, J. (2012) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.730 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
“Research on the correspondence bias (Gawronski, 2004; Gilbert & Malone, 1995; Jones, 1990) indicates that perceivers tend to draw correspondent dispositional inferences based on the behavior of others, even when situational factors are genuinely responsible for the behavior (Kunda, 2000).”
Background
Mindreading: Judgments About Intentionality and Motives in Dispositional Inference
Reeder, G. D. (2009) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/10478400802615744 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
“Heider’s road map led researchers to jump pell-mell into ambitious programs of research on dispositional inference (Gawronski, 2004; Gilbert, 1998; Jones, 1979).”
BackgroundInfluential
Dispositional attribution: Multiple inferences about motive-related traits.
Reeder, G. D., Vonk, R., Ronk, M. J., Ham, J. R. C., & Lawrence, M. (2004) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.86.4.530 · Cited by 151 · see citing works
“Even a cursory glance at past research on the link between causal attribution and dispositional inference reveals a troubled past (Gawronski, 2003b; Hamilton, 1998; Krull, 2001; Sabini et al., 2001; Solomon, 1978).”
Background
An early-emerging explanatory heuristic promotes support for the status quo.
Hussak, L. J., & Cimpian, A. (2015) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspa0000033 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Deconstructing corporate hypocrisy: A delineation of its behavioral, moral, and attributional facets
Wagner, T., Korschun, D., & Troebs, C.-C. (2019) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.041 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
The 3 C's of anthropomorphism: Connection, comprehension, and competition
Yang, L. W., Aggarwal, P., & McGill, A. L. (2019) · Consumer Psychology Review · doi:10.1002/arcp.1054 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
“When judging another human, people tend to assume that an un‐ derlying stable disposition (e.g., values, personality traits) drives that person's behavior (Gawronski, 2004).”
Background
Tailoring management response to negative reviews: The effectiveness of accommodative versus defensive responses
Li, C., Cui, G., & Peng, L. (2018) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2018.03.009 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
How should intelligent agents apologize to restore trust? Interaction effects between anthropomorphism and apology attribution on trust repair
Kim, T., & Song, H. (2021) · Telematics and Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.tele.2021.101595 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
A note of caution regarding anthropomorphism in HCI agents
Culley, K. E., & Madhavan, P. (2013) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.11.023 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
“The attribution of characteristics to an agent or system relates to the correspondence bias, which refers to the human tendency to explain behaviors in terms of internal dispositions, traits, and motives, and to underestimate the influence of external situation factors (Gawronski, 2004; Gilbert & Malone, 1995). The in…”
BackgroundInfluential
User adaptation to interactive advertising formats: The effect of previous exposure, habit and time urgency on ad skipping behaviors
Belanche, D., Flavián, C., & Pérez-Rueda, A. (2017) · Telematics and Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.tele.2017.04.006 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Causal Conceptions in Social Explanation and Moral Evaluation
Alicke, M. D., Mandel, D. R., Hilton, D., Gerstenberg, T., & Lagnado, D. A. (2015) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691615601888 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
“Although insufficient discounting of situational pressures undoubtedly occurs (e.g., Bierbrauer, 1979), we note that this tendency is far from inevitable (for relevant reviews, see Gawronski, 2004; Hastie, in press; Hilton, 2007; McClure, 1998).”
Background
Interpretations and methods: Towards a more effectively self-correcting social psychology
Jussim, L. J., Crawford, J. T., Anglin, S. M., Stevens, S. T., & Duarte, J. L. (2016) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2015.10.003 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
“Even though people often do make correspondent inferences, the evidence that people actually systematically or generally underestimate the power of situations is weak and inconsistent (Gawronski, 2004;Malle, 2006).”
Background
Mindfulness Reduces the Correspondence Bias
Hopthrow, T., Hooper, N., Mahmood, L., Meier, B. P., & Weger, U. (2016) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1149498 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
“An abundanceof researchhas examined theCB, and some underlying mechanisms have been identified (Gawronski, 2004).”
Influential
Explanation as a Cognitive Process
Horne, Z., Muradoglu, M., & Cimpian, A. (2019) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.12.004 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Communion and agency judgments of women and men as a function of role information and response format
Bosak, J., Sczesny, S., & Eagly, A. H. (2008) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.538 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“Correspondent inference from behaviors to traits then underlies gender stereotypes (for the correspondent inference principle, see Gawronski, 2003, 2004; Gilbert, 1998).”
Background
Perspective taking reduces the fundamental attribution error
Hooper, N., Erdogan, A., Keen, G., Lawton, K., & McHugh, L. (2015) · Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2015.02.002 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
“When assessing and forming judgements of an individual's behavior we tend to overlook contextual information and attribute behavior to internal dispositions (Gawronski, 2004; Masuda & Kitayama, 2004; Gilbert & Malone, 1995).”
Background
“Girls Are as Good as Boys at Math” Implies That Boys Are Probably Better: A Study of Expressions of Gender Equality
Chestnut, E. K., & Markman, E. M. (2018) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/cogs.12637 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Automaticity and the Unconscious
Dijksterhuis, A. (2010) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9780470561119.socpsy001007 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Stereotypes, theory of mind, and the action–prediction hierarchy
Westra, E. (2017) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-017-1575-9 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“prone to interpret behavior as the product of a person’s character traits, rather than their situation, a phenomenon known as the ‘correspondence bias’ or ‘fundamental attribution error’ (Gawronski 2004; Gilbert et al. 1995; Jones and Harris 1967; Ross 1977).”
Background
Typical Roles and Intergroup Relations Shape Stereotypes: How Understanding Social Structure Clarifies the Origins of Stereotype Content
Koenig, A. M., & Eagly, A. H. (2019) · Social Psychology Quarterly · doi:10.1177/0190272519850766 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
The automatic and co-occurring activation of multiple social inferences
Todd, A. R., Molden, D. C., Ham, J. R. C., & Vonk, R. (2010) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.08.006 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
“Our expanded account therefore implies that other explanations for the prominence of trait-focused biases – ones that involve how andwhen alternate explanations are integrated (Krull & Erickson, 1995a; Trope &Gaunt, 2000) –maymore frequently account for this phenomenon (Gawronski, 2004).”
BackgroundResult
Implicit Bias ≠ Bias on Implicit Measures
Gawronski, B., Ledgerwood, A., & Eastwick, P. (2022) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2022.2106750 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Self-citation
Juror sensitivity to false confession risk factors: Dispositional vs. situational attributions for a confession.
Woestehoff, S. A., & Meissner, C. A. (2016) · Law and Human Behavior · doi:10.1037/lhb0000201 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Social construction of scientifically grounded climate change discussions
Swim, J. K., Geiger, N., Sweetland, J., & Fraser, J. (2018) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813130-5.00004-7 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Individual Differences in Correspondence Bias: Measurement, Consequences, and Correction of Biased Interpersonal Attributions
Scopelliti, I., Min, H. L., McCormick, E. N., Kassam, K., & Morewedge, C. K. (2017) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2016.2668 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
“…on correspondence bias has proposed several different processes underlying the tendency to make correspondent inferences (Gilbert and Malone 1995, Gawronski 2004): lack of awareness (i.e., observers may not be aware of the situational influences on the observed behavior), unrealistic…”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
Character and theory of mind: an integrative approach
Westra, E. (2017) · Philosophical Studies · doi:10.1007/s11098-017-0908-3 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
“…in this vein is that we tend to overattribute the causes of behavior to underlying traits or dispositions rather than situational factors—a phenomenon known as the ‘correspondence bias’ or the ‘fundamental attribution error’ (Gawronski 2004; Gilbert et al. 1995; Jones and Harris 1967; Ross 1977).”
How Do Young Children Explain Differences in the Classroom? Implications for Achievement, Motivation, and Educational Equity
Goudeau, S., & Cimpian, A. (2021) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691620953781 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
“…to infer that a behavior or outcome is due to a corresponding characteristic of the person (rather than historical or situational constraints) is known as the fundamental attribution error (e.g., Jones, 1979; Ross, 1977) or the correspondence bias (e.g., Gawronski, 2004; Gilbert & Malone, 1995).”
Background
Ability or luck: A systematic review of interpersonal attributions of success
Hamilton, O. S., & Lordan, G. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035012 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
“…ignoring the salience of diffuse characteristics, social situs, cultural legacies, and institutional constraints that confound assessments, such as that evidenced by Mitchell and Wood (1980), Mitchell and Kalb (1981), and Gawronski (2004). expectations are not accurate (Russell and Fiske, 2008).”
BackgroundInfluential
Gender diversity and the spillover effects of women on boards
Boutchkova, M. K., Gonzalez, A., Main, B. G. M., & Sila, V. (2020) · Corporate Governance An International Review · doi:10.1111/corg.12339 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Benefits of being ambivalent: The relationship between trait ambivalence and attribution biases
Schneider, I. K., Novin, S., van Harreveld, F., & Genschow, O. (2020) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12417 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Fritz Heider’s Legacy
Malle, B. F. (2008) · Social Psychology · doi:10.1027/1864-9335.39.3.163 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Cross‐Cultural Differences and Similarities in Attribution
Dean, K. K., & Koenig, A. M. (2019) · doi:10.1002/9781119519348.ch28 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
How people explain their own and others’ behavior: a theory of lay causal explanations
Böhm, G., & Pfister, H.-R. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00139 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
“Approaches in the tradition of attribution theory that do address lay causal theories often look at them only with respect to the person-situation distinction (Hansen, 1980; Ybarra, 2002; Gawronski, 2004).”
Background
Neural mechanisms underlying the integration of situational information into attribution outcomes
Brosch, T., Schiller, D., Mojdehbakhsh, R., Uleman, J. S., & Phelps, E. A. (2013) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nst019 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
“Several competing theories have been put forward to explain why people often discount situational information (see Gawronski, 2004; Sabini et al., 2001, for reviews), some of which emphasizing a single factor, and others proposing a dual process.”
Fundamental Attribution Error
Granot, Y., & Balcetis, E. (2013) · The Encyclopedia of Cross‐Cultural Psychology · doi:10.1002/9781118339893.wbeccp232 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Impressions of Milgram's obedient teachers: Situational cues inform inferences about motives and traits.
Reeder, G. D., Monroe, A. E., & Pryor, J. B. (2008) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.1 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Unequal opportunities from the start: Socioeconomic disparities in classroom participation in preschool.
Goudeau, S., Sanrey, C., Autin, F., Stephens, N. K., Markus, H. R., Croizet, J., & Cimpian, A. (2023) · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · doi:10.1037/xge0001437 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Effective CCTV and the challenge of constructing legitimate suspicion using remote visual images
Williams, D. D. (2007) · Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling · doi:10.1002/jip.68 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
“…that undoing the tendency to over-attribute negative dispositional inferences towards a target is particularly difficult when one expects to see immoral or antisocial behaviour (Gawronski, 2004; Reeder, Kumar, Hesson-McInnis, and Trafimow, 2002; for a review see: Skowronski, Carlston, 1989).”
Background
“Just as good”: Learning gender stereotypes from attempts to counteract them.
Chestnut, E. K., Zhang, M. Y., & Markman, E. M. (2020) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0001143 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Russia and the United States in the Caucasus: cooperation and competition
Markedonov, S., & Suchkov, M. A. (2020) · Caucasus Survey · doi:10.1080/23761199.2020.1732101 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
“However, recently the situational factors have been increasingly recognized as a factor in perceptions of correspondence bias (Gawronski 2004).”
Background
The Implicit Misattribution Model of Evaluative Conditioning
March, D. S., Olson, M. A., & Fázio, R. H. (2018) · Social Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.5964/spb.v13i3.27574 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
“Most relevant to the present purposes, there is evidence that people engage in such reasoning automatically (Gilbert, 1989). For example, in the domain of impression formation, people tend to see traits in behaviors, that is, they interpret peoples’ behaviors in terms of causally relevant traits without having to walk…”
Background
All power to our great leader: political leadership under uncertainty
Haller, J. J., & Hogg, M. A. (2014) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139565417.011 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Cognitive bias in workplace investigation: Problems, perspectives and proposed solutions
MacLean, C. L. (2022) · Applied Ergonomics · doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103860 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
On Difficult Questions and Evident Answers: Dispositional Inference from Role-Constrained Behavior
Gawronski, B. (2003) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167203256375 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
“Some experiments, however, suggest that perceivers commit the so-called fundamental attribution error even when they consider the impact of situational factors (e.g., Trope & Gaunt, 1999; see Gawronski, 2003a, 2003b for a discussion).”
BackgroundResultSelf-citation
In Search of a Negativity Bias in Expectancy Violation
Brannon, S. M., & Gawronski, B. (2018) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.2018.36.2.199 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“This interpretation would be consistent with research on the correspondence bias (for a review, see Gawronski, 2004) and spontaneous trait inference (for a review, see McCarthy & Skowronski, 2014), which suggests that people draw strong inferences about underlying dispositions based on relatively…”
ResultSelf-citation
Folk personality psychology: mindreading and mindshaping in trait attribution
Westra, E. (2020) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02566-7 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Spontaneous state inferences.
Kruse, F., & Degner, J. (2021) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspa0000232 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
The impact of narrative writing on empathy, perspective-taking, and attitude: Two randomized controlled experiments on violations of Covid-19 protection regulations
Bientzle, M., Eggeling, M., Kanzleiter, M., Thieme, K., & Kimmerle, J. (2021) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0254501 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
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“(Gawronski, 2004).”

Authors: Gawronski, B.
Affiliations: Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author: Gawronski, Bertram
ORCID: Gawronski, Bertram
Venue: European Review of Social Psychology
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Published: 2004-01
Volume: 15
Issue: 1
Pages: 183-217
ISSN: 1046-3283 (ISSN-L)
1479-277X
DOI: 10.1080/10463280440000026
OpenAlex: W1963540280
Semantic Scholar: 6e093027038bcaa0cdf314a6b2b91acd94aa12cc
Cited by: 162
References: 133
Citations by year: 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 4
FWCI: 6.31
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: European Review of Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Keywords: correspondence bias, fundamental attribution error, dispositional inference, causal theories, social perception

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Theory-based bias correction in dispositional inference: The fundamental attribution error is dead, long live the correspondence bias

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