Asymmetrical Attributions for Approach Versus Avoidance Behavior

Greitemeyer, Tobias and Weiner, Bernard (2003): Asymmetrical Attributions for Approach Versus Avoidance Behavior. In: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 29, No. 11: pp. 1371-1382

Abstract

Five studies examined responsibility inferences and/or person and situation attributions in positively versus negatively valenced motivational contexts. In Experiment 1, participants received information about a teaching assistant who was promised a reward or threatened with a punishment when asked for compliance with a requested transgression. The teaching assistant was perceived as more responsible for complying given the positive than the negative incentive. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2 using different vignettes and incentives. Experiment 3 revealed that the effect of incentive valence on perceived responsibility for compliance remains significant when statistically controlling for perceived compliance rates. Experiment 4 then demonstrated that there are not only greater responsibility judgments given a positive than a negative incentive but also greater dispositional attributions. Finally, Experiment 5 revealed that a similar incentive valence effect is found in other appetitive versus aversive motivational contexts. Theoretical explanations of this phenomenon are discussed.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Faculties: Psychology and Education Science
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 150 Psychology; 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
• Alliance/National Licence: This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
• Language: English