Attributional biases about the origins of attitudes: externality, emotionality, and rationality.
Pilot work and 3 studies investigated the ways people explain the origins of attitudes. Study I examined the use of 3 dimensions (externality, rationality, emotionality) to explain the origin of people's own, in-group, and out-group attitudes. Attributions for own attitudes were the least externally and emotionally based and the most rationally based. By comparison with the out-group, less externality, less emotionality, and more rationality also were attributed to in-group attitudes. Studies 2 and 3 examined the effects of intergroup threat on attributions for in- and out-group attitude positions. Under high threat, more externality and emotionality but less rationality were attributed to out-group attitudes than under low threat. Intergroup differentiation mediated the difference between out-group attributions under high and low threat.
Kenworthy
Jared B
JB
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089-1061, USA. kenworth@rcf.usc.edu
Miller
Norman
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D001364:Awareness; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D012933:Social Identification