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Psychological Phenomena

Ultimate Attribution Error

Social Biases and Group Effects

The ultimate attribution error is a bias in how people explain the behavior of members of an outgroup compared with their own ingroup. Negative behavior by an outgroup member tends to be attributed to that person's own character, while positive behavior by an outgroup member tends to be explained away as due to luck or circumstance, and the reverse pattern holds for how an ingroup member's own behavior is explained. The bias has been found to show up more strongly among people from Western cultures than among people from Eastern cultures.

Facts
Core Claim
The ultimate attribution error is an attribution error made when making in-group and out-group attributions, resulting in in-group favoritism. 1
First Described Year
1979 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Social or Interpersonal Phenomenon 1
Connections

In Branch

Source Wikipedia: Ultimate attribution error
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ultimate attribution error
Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead paragraph 1
    The ultimate attribution error is an attribution error made when making in-group and out-group attributions, resulting in in-group favoritism.
  • lead paragraph 4
    The concept and term originates in an article by Thomas F. Pettigrew in 1979 as an extension of the fundamental attribution error which was identified in 1958.
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    The ultimate attribution error is an attribution error made when making in-group and out-group attributions, resulting in in-group favoritism.
  • In Branch: Cognitive Psychology, Categories
    Wikipedia article 'Ultimate attribution error' is filed under Category:Cognitive biases.
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