Bias in attribution of success and failurein a real quiz game situation

Pardačer, Suzana . (2011). Bias in attribution of success and failurein a real quiz game situation. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Kamenov, Željka].

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Abstract

The human need for understanding the events in a social environment is the main driver behind the process of attribution. Studies have shown that people ask the question "Why?" even when it is not required of them, especially in situations of unconfirmed expectations and frustrations caused by the failure. We assumed that the participants in the specific situation of achievement suchas a quiz The weakest link, which is a combination of quiz and a game of chance, will be highly motivated to attribute their result. The aim of the research was to examine in a natural situation, the assumptions established in laboratory settings. We were interested in whether the results show biased attribution, tendency to attribute successes internally and causes of failuresexternally, and further whether there will be stereotyped attribution in a way that men attribute their results in a biased way, and woman in the opposite direction. On a sample of 532 players we applied the Scale for the attribution of specific reasons for success/failure with 17 attributes, and derived a measure of attribution of success/failure of the three basic dimensions: the location of causality, stability and susceptibility to control. The results were statistically analyzed and interpreted.Realistically assessing the actual quiz situation both the successful and unsuccessful players have largely attributed their outcomes to luck. Citing other attributes that contributed to the outcome, their conclusions were biased: the successful players list internal factors as the causes of their success - the knowledge, confidence as stable factors and good concentration, the ability to respond quickly, timely bank the money and dedication as unstable factors. Unsuccessful players state unstable causes of their failure - poor concentration, stage freight and lack of experience in quizzes as internally factors and difficulty of tasks as external factor. There is a significant difference between winners and losers in their attributions on the dimensions of stability and susceptibility to control but no significant difference in causation. Gender based differences in the attribution have either not been confirmed or they do not go in the expected direction - the women, not men, have excused their failure to a greater extent using unstable internal and external factors.

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