Reversing ViewpointsVideotape and the Attribution Process:

Reversing Actors’ and Observers’ Points of View

Katie Harnish

Outline• Background• Methods• Results• Discussion• Questions• Reference

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

• “The tendency to assume other people’s actions are caused by their personal, individual qualities rather than external, situational forces” (Ross, 1977).

Background• Individuals (Actors) seem to articulate

potential causes and reasoning behind their own behavior through increased emphasis on external cues (Situational Factors).

• Outsiders (Observers) often consider more internal cues dispositional factors versus situational when explaining others’ behavior.

Contributing Factors• Differences in actors’ and observers’

points of view:• Availability of information about

external surroundings, behavior, and contexts

• Processing of information

Purpose of Study• Can actor’s and observers’ points of

view be reversed through changing visual orientation?

Methods• Overview of Experimental Procedure:

• Interpersonal Conversations-”Getting Acquainted”• Videotape Replays

• Actor-Same Orientation• Observer-Same Orientation• Actor-New Orientation• Observer-New Orientation• Control Group (No videotape replay)

• Post Questionnaire

Methods cont’d.• 120 Participants-30 groups of 4 people • Measures: Personality Characteristics

Situational Characteristics

Results• Visual orientation is key when actors and/or

observers are interpreting behaviors.• No significant differences between

perceived level of behavior and differences in attributions (situational, dispositional)

• Significant differences in the correlation between role (actor/observer) and videotape orientation.

Results cont’d.

• Actors attributed relatively more to situational causes than did observers (control and same orientation group)

• Actors attributed relatively more to dispositional than observers (new orientation group).

• For the questionnaire: dominance was difficult to assess for subjects (observers, self)

Discussion Question• What are some possible implications

from the results of this study?

Reference• Storms, M. D. (1973). Videotape and the

Attribution process: Reversing actors' and Observers' points of view.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 165-175.