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The Effect of an Informational Option on the Fundamental Attribution Error

Miami University, Ohio

Tim Lawson

Miami University, Ohio

The present study investigated the fundamental attribution error (FAE) using a new paradigm and a repeated-measures design. Subjects were asked to attribute the actual impressions held by targets who had been shown photographs and had been asked to record impressions under conditions varying in constraint. The FAE was substantial when the target's impression responses were shown but was sharply reduced-to nonsignifcance in a condition of maximal constraint-when the photographs were also provided. Subjects thus displayed a capacity to recognize "worthless" information and to discount the behavior of a highly constrained target but only when given an informational option relevant for the required attributional judgment. These findings, indicating that the perceived diagnosticity of information about a constrained target may be highly dependent upon the judgmental context, were interpreted as identifying a significant cognitive boundary condition for the FAE.

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