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ERIC Number: ED211872
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1981-Apr
Pages: 16
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
A Comparison of Past and Future Attributional Judgments.
Osberg, Timothy M.; Shrauger, J. Sidney
Research has provided support for the existence of certain actor-observer and self-serving biases in individuals' retrospective analyses about the causes of behavior. A question that has been relatively unexplored deals with whether the findings on actor-observer differences and the self-serving pattern in attributions are generalizable to persons' predictive judgments about the factors that influence future behavior. Undergraduates (N=83) were asked to imagine either their own or someone else's past or future behavior in three different situations, and then to make appropriate causal judgments. Significant differences occurred in judgments about factors potentially affecting future performance as opposed to attributions about past performance; future judgments were more dispositional than attributions about past behaviors. Evidence was also found that actor-observer and self-serving biases were present in both past and future attributional judgments. The findings suggest that a difference exists between the way an individual accounts for past behavior and the judgments an individual makes about potential factors likely to affect future behavior. (Author/NRB)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A