When you make an external attribution you are attributing the causes of behavior to?

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-Actor-Observer Bias: We tend to attribute others' behavior internally and our own behavior externally, we don't seem to recognize that the same situational influences on behavior that we face are also faced by others.
Example: I-4 → seeing someone going 100 mph, you think they are an a-hole, but if you speed, it was good intentions, "just this once"
-Explanation 1: Amount of relevant information available based on past experience (We know more about our own past experiences and how we act differently in various situations)
-Nisbett 1973: Had participants rate themselves, their best friend, their father, an admired acquaintance, and Walter Cronkite (famous newscaster) on 20 trait- pairs (Ex: Reserved or emotional or depends on the situation; Dignified or casual or depends on the situation)
Someone they knew closely- depends because they can think of both instances
Newscaster- saw dignified because he's dignified on the show and they assume that outside of work he must always be dignified to
(the person you know more it you would say depends on the situation, but from someone you do not know as well(Walter Cronkite), only from what you have seen on tv, you would think reserved)
Results: Participants ascribed many more traits to Walter Cronkite than their father, their best friends, or themselves (Also used Depends on a situation for themselves more).
-Explanation 2: Visual Salience (When we make attributions about others' behaviors, we tend to focus on the people as visually salient "actors" against a background), focusing on the person because you don't see the environment that might've caused something
-Storms- had participants converse with another student for a few minutes, video camera recorded the conversation from the "partners" point of view.
Results:
-When the camera was facing the other person, they made external attributions
about themselves.
-When the camera was facing themselves, they made internal attributions about their own behavior.

Four Basic Ways that Cognitive Dissonance can lead to Attitude Change:
1. Postdecisional Dissonance - Occurs when a person makes a difficult choice between two alternatives, experiences dissonance afterwards because he or she had to go without the alternative that wasn't chosen, then ends up emphasizing the attractive features of the chosen alternative. (EX: Chooses to buy one car over the other, experiences dissonance after your purchase, emphasize the attractive features of your car) Free choice paradigm, females asked to rate consumer items, easy or hard choice, asked to rate items again
2. Effort Justification - Occurs when a person spends a lot more effort attaining a goal than it actually turns out to be worth, experiences dissonance, and then ends up emphasizing the attractive features of the goal. (EX: After expending tremendous effort to see a show, a person might distort their true attitude toward the experience such that the concert seems better than it actually is)
Aronson and Mills - severe, mild, and no initiation - hazing example, female participants told group discussion on sex, more severe = higher interest level, how interesting they thought the study was - severe = most interesting
3. Insufficient Justification - Occurs when a person performs an undesirable action for too small of an inducement, experiences cognitive dissonance, and ends up emphasizing the attractive features of the action and making it seem not so desirable. (EX: After shoplifting on a dare, a person might feel compelled to say things like "The store charges too much for their merchandise anyways" "They deserved it anyways."
2 boring tasks- asked to help by telling next person that it was fun and interesting, 3 conditions- $20, $1, or asked to rate with no money; after lying, asked to rate experiment in terms of how interesting, When they said to tell the next person that it was fun and interesting for $1, they rated as most enjoyable, rather than $20; When they were given $1, they told themselves it was fun. When they did $20, they didn't think it was fun because they knew they were totally lying and it was so bad that they had to give them $20. They thought the $20 was a bribe - it makes them realize how bad it was - not as desirable
4. Insufficient Deterrence. - Occurs when a person refrains from performing a desirable action because of a very small deterrent, experiences dissonance, and ends up emphasizing the unattractive features of the action. (EX: After not buying a TV even though it was on sale for a good price, a person might feel compelled to say it was probably only on sale because the store was selling the used/damaged floor models, it wasn't a real sale anyways)
Toy treatment group experiment Lepper

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