Which of these statements is CORRECT?a)People in non-Western cultures ...
There is now strong evidence that people in non-Western cultures do not make the same kinds of attributions as people in Western individualistic societies. The fundamental attribution error, which was originally thought to be a universal cognitive bias, is not found in collectivist cultures. Instead, many non-Western people place less emphasis on internal dispositional explanations, and more emphasis on external and situational explanations (Shweder & Bourne, 1982).
Miller (1984) was among the first social psychologists to suggest that such differences arise from different cultural representations of the person that are learned during social development, rather than from cognitive and perceptual factors. Miller (1994) conducted a cross-cultural study to compare the attributions made for prosocial and deviant behaviours by a sample of Americans and Indian Hindus of three different age groups (8, 11 and 15 years) and an adult group with a mean age of 40.
Miller found a significant linear age increase in dispositional attributions among Americans, and a similar linear age increase in situational attributions for the Indian sample. It therefore appears that the FAE is very culture specific, and the cognitive and perceptual explanations originally advanced for the FAE need to be reconsidered in light of Miller’s findings.
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Which of these statements is CORRECT?a)People in non-Western cultures ...
The Correct Statement is B: The fundamental attribution error is not found in collectivist cultures.
Explanation:
The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal factors rather than external factors. For example, if someone is late for a meeting, we might assume that they are lazy or irresponsible, rather than considering that they might have encountered unexpected traffic or other external factors that caused the delay.
Research has shown that this bias is more prevalent in Western individualistic cultures, where people tend to focus more on individual achievement and autonomy. In contrast, in collectivist cultures, people tend to focus more on social connections and group harmony, and therefore are less likely to make dispositional attributions.
For instance, in Japan, people tend to focus on environmental factors that contribute to behavior rather than dispositional factors. They might attribute someone's tardiness to a crowded train, rather than assuming that the person is lazy or irresponsible.
Therefore, the correct statement is B: The fundamental attribution error is not found in collectivist cultures. However, it is important to note that this does not mean that people in collectivist cultures never make dispositional attributions. Rather, it means that they are less likely to make them compared to people in individualistic cultures.
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