Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Two studies attempted to document the occurrence of the psychological phenomenon known as the fundamental attribution error (FAE) in the audiovisual medium. The FAE refers to the human tendency to attribute people's behavior to internal attributes more than external factors. In Study 1, we demonstrated that in the audiovisual medium, viewers tend to attribute an actor’s behavior in television dramas to the actor’s personality, ignoring the existence of a script dictating the actor’s behavior. Study 2 replicated this finding, and also demonstrated that the tendency to make the FAE is related to the degree to which the person reports being transported into the narrative of the TV drama. Furthermore, we showed that the tendency to attribute character traits to the actor is not diminished following exposure to the same actor playing two opposing roles. The last scene viewed was found to determine the evaluation of the actor’s characteristics.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Weiner (1980a, 1980b) posits that our attributions about the causes of others’ situations will influence our emotional reactions towards them (such as sympathy or anger), and it is these emotional reactions which determine our willingness to act on their behalf. The purpose of this paper was to test Weiner’s theory in the context of the courtroom. In the context of a rape case, we found that feelings of sympathy for the victim/witness mediated the relationship between jurors’ attributions of blame (for the rape) and perceptions of her credibility.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: First year Harvard Law students read descriptions of a murder by either a Chinese visiting student or an American postal worker, then rated twelve explanations of the killer's act in terms of the plausibilities of the explanations. Half of the explanations were "dispositional" (e.g. killer an evil person) and half were "situational" (e.g. killer acted because he was under intolerable job stress). The explanations were drawn from actual accounts of murders in Chinese and American newspapers. The data results support social psychology's "ultimate attribution error": that is, Americans endorsed relatively more dispositional explanations of the Chinese killer's act than of the American killer's act. The sex of the rater, however, did not influence the explanation endorsements, except in the sense that it interacted in a complex way with the killer's nationality. In a followup study, the sex of the killer was manipulated so that some law students rated explanations of a female killer's conduct and other law students rated explanations of a male killer's conduct. The sex of the killer did not influence explanation endorsements. Half of the raters had already completed a course in criminal law and half had not. This variable did not influence the relative preference for dispositional or situational explanations of the killer's conduct.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research applies attribution theory and situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) to post-crisis corporate communication research. Attribution theory is used to explain how the public’s responses to a corporation involved in an accident are formed based on their attributions about the accident. SCCT, on the other hand, is used to examine how those attributions can be altered based on communication messages. Consistent with SCCT, high distinctiveness information lead to lower internal attribution about a corporation, and this in turn, resulted in lower public support for punitive actions toward the corporation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The impact of chronic illness on disability among older adults has been well-documented with extensive research on functional decline in the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs). However, research that focuses on disability arising from emotional problems or research on disability among younger adults is less prevalent. We examined models of disability resulting from both physical and emotional health problems among samples of both older and younger adults. In these models we further distinguish between disability attributed to physical or emotional problems by subjects who are experiencing difficulties performing instrumental and advanced (cognitive) ADLs. The findings reveal that emotional problems measured by symptoms of depression always have significant effects on all four dimensions of disability, and these are often among the most influential effects in the models. The findings also reveal that discriminating between attributions of disability to emotional and physical health is necessary in order to have a complete understanding of the structure of functional disability.