Attribution Errors and Victim Blaming

Our tangential discussion of the fundamental attribution error led me to do some reading about attribution theory in general. The hypothesis that resonated most with me is that of a self-serving attribution bias. Self-serving attribution bias explains why an observer might attribute another's actions to their fundamental qualities--but only in those cases in which that attribution reflects well on the observer. In cases where attributing another's actions to their fundamental qualities will reflect poorly on the observer, the observer will instead attribute those actions to the external situation. Unlike the fundamental attribution error, self-serving attribution bias also explains how actors interpret their own actions--resultant alternatively from intrinsic or extrinsic factors, depending on what best supports their self-esteem. Self-serving attribution bias might lead an observer to interpret another student's D on a test as the result of their stupidity, another student's A to the easiness of the test, their own A to their intelligence, and their own D to the difficulty of the test.

This tendency to attribute others' misfortunes to their intrinsic failures relates to the widespread social problem that is victim blaming. Observers will "blame" the victims of such diverse wrongful acts as poverty or mental illness, etc. by attributing these ills to intrinsic qualities (laziness, unwholesomeness, etc.) rather than taking into account the many potential extrinsic causes: institutionalized cyclical poverty, lack of mental health care, etc.

The term "victim blaming" was first used to describe white America's tendency to justify the sorry position of blacks in America, but in recent years it has been used most often to describe th...

... middle of paper ...

...in which bad people are punished for their bad decisions and good people are rewarded for their good decisions. Unfortunately, the psychological mechanisms that allow us to feel best about ourselves are not always the same ones that allow us to make the best decisions. We blame victims of rape not for their own good but for our own mental security that nothing like that could ever happen to someone like us.

Luckily, there are some instances in which the sentiment that allows us to feel good is also one that accurately reflects reality--such as the result of a 2011 study at Sam Houston State University that people are less likely to victim blame once they are informed about theories of victimology. We can--and must--work to override our self-serving biases and instead approach problems such as campus rape with the selfless, unbiased desire to eradicate the problem.