The Actor and the Observer¶
Jones, E. E., & Nisbett, R. E. (1972). The Actor and the Observer: Divergent Perceptions of the Causes of Behavior. Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior.
Retired. This entry was not a citation. Our extractor stored an inline prose definition from the article as though it were a bibliographic record, so its title is the name of a concept rather than of a published work. The page is kept because links to it still resolve, but it is withdrawn from the reference list. This entry is kept so the citations that pointed at it still resolve, and so the correction is visible rather than silent.
Cited by¶
4 citations across 4 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Fundamental Attribution Error
- The bias rests on mechanisms identified across multiple decades of subsequent research, including the perceptual focus on the actor as figure against the situational ground, and the asymmetry between attributions for oneself versus others documented by Jones and Nisbett (1971).
This sourceFoundational statement of the actor-observer asymmetry (self attributed situationally, others dispositionally); supports D17-060's documentation of self-other divergence. Full text PDF
- The bias rests on mechanisms identified across multiple decades of subsequent research, including the perceptual focus on the actor as figure against the situational ground, and the asymmetry between attributions for oneself versus others documented by Jones and Nisbett (1971).
Mechanisms¶
- Actor-Perspective Analysis
- Its strength is that it is the sharpest antidote to the fundamental attribution error
This sourceDescribes observers as favoring dispositional explanations of others while actors favor situational explanations of their own behavior.
- Its strength is that it is the sharpest antidote to the fundamental attribution error
- Actor Perspective Interview
- People narrate their own conduct in situational terms
This sourceDescribes the actor–observer asymmetry: actors emphasize situational causes for their own conduct while observers emphasize dispositions.
- People narrate their own conduct in situational terms
- Conflict De-escalation Review
- Its central corrective is the fundamental attribution error — the pull to explain others' behavior by their character and intent while explaining our own by our circumstances.
This sourceContrasts observers’ dispositional explanations of others with actors’ situational explanations of their own behavior.
- Its central corrective is the fundamental attribution error — the pull to explain others' behavior by their character and intent while explaining our own by our circumstances.
Verification¶
Does it exist? Not checked yet. This entry carries no identifier to resolve. It was extracted from the citation as written in the article, normalized, and deduplicated against the rest of the registry.
Does it back the claim? Not recorded. Neither this nor any other of the 4 citations of this work carries a recorded support check.
Was it audited? Yes. A second, independent pass read the citation against the article text and recorded a verdict.
Support is checked per citation rather than per work — the same source can be cited soundly in one article and wrongly in another. Per-citation recording began recently, so a citation with no recorded check is a gap in the record rather than evidence it went unchecked.
See how references were verified.
Links previously used in the corpus¶
Before the registry existed this work was also linked 3 other ways.
- https://search.worldcat.org/title/938569 ×1
- https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-actor-and-the-observer%3A-divergent-perceptions-of-the-causes-of-behavior/oclc/938569 ×1
- https://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/15341_Readings/Social_Cognition/Jones_%26_Nisbett_The_Actor_%26_the_Observer_Attribution_pp79-94.pdf ×1
Registry ID ref:ecb044602054 · see in the full table