This type of attribution is more commonly seen in negative situations.

To simply put it, Actor Observer Bias is actually how people have the tendency to show themselves to other people depending on how they view themselves – either as observers or actors in a specific situation. But once we are the ones experiencing hardships, we tend to blame the situation and not ourselves.Īctor Observer Bias is a specific form of attributional bias that has a significant role in how we, humans, view and interact with each other. We see how other people experience life, and we often blame them for it. To put it simply, we are the observers, and we are observing someone from afar.

With this, it is also evident that we feel angrier when we put it in our heads that the situation is because of internal factors. We often feel calmer when we start acknowledging the fact that the person is in that situation because of external factors.

Externally Actor-Observer Bias is basing it on the situation, circumstance, or the people around an individual.

Internally Actor Observer Bias is basing it on how the individual presents themselves and their character.

We have two different options on how we can attribute these situations: Social Psychology defines actor-observer bias as a person’s tendency to associate his or her actions with external events while associating other people’s beliefs, values, and behaviors with internal causes.Īttribution is how a person determines the reason for our and other people’s behavior and how they end up in the situations that they are in.

Common Characteristics of Actor Observer Bias.

Actor observer versus self serving bias