Is She Really Going out with Him?

Abstract

Nisbett et al. (1973) set out to demonstrate the differing explanations that actors and observers have concerning the perceived causes of people’s behaviour. They suggested that when we explain our own behaviour we make different attributions than when we explain the behaviour of someone else. In this context the term ‘actor’ refers to the person ‘doing’ the behaviour in question, and the term ‘observer’ refers to someone who is trying to explain the behaviour of the actor. Nisbett et al. argued that we tend to see our own behaviour as being caused more by the situation which we are in than by ourselves (the actor’s perspective). Conversely we see the behaviour of other people as being caused more by them themselves than by the situation that they are in (the observer’s perspective).