HOW DO WE JUDGE OTHERS COMPARED TO OURSELVES? Attribution Theory Dispositional Attribution: You act that way because that’s who you are Situational Attribution: You act that way because of the situation you are in Fundamental Attribution Error When evaluating others, we assume dispositional before we consider situational Self-serving bias: we tend to view ourselves in a better light than we view others
STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT What happens when you put good people in a bad place? Do people become products of their environment or does the environment become a product of the people? The point to remember Evil acts shape the self, but so do acts of good will. Act as though you like someone, and you soon will. Changing our behavior can change how we think; changing our attitudes can change our behavior.
ABU GHRAIB CNN: What happened inside Abu Ghraib (4 mins) Zimbardo’s explanation (11 mins) Do people become products of their environment or does the environment become a product of the people?