To investigate attributions related to exercise, an experimenter interviewed primary care physicians (PCPs) about their own exercise habits and their patients' reported exercise habits. The experimenter found that PCPs were more likely to attribute their own lack of exercise to factors such as being too busy, but were more likely to attribute their patients' lack of exercise to factors such as laziness. These results best illustrate the:

Question

To investigate attributions related to exercise, an experimenter interviewed primary care physicians (PCPs) about their own exercise habits and their patients' reported exercise habits.  The experimenter found that PCPs were more likely to attribute their own lack of exercise to factors such as being too busy, but were more likely to attribute their patients' lack of exercise to factors such as laziness.  These results best illustrate the:

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

11ecba2d_0d58_ca9b_a3bf_312aac4dc6d6_MD0008_00 Attributional biases are cognitive biases (common errors in thinking) that occur when people attempt to explain their own behavior or the behavior of someone else. Attributions can be dispositional, based on internal characteristics (eg, personality), or situational, based on external factors (eg, environment). The actor-observer bias is an attributional bias that describes the tendency to attribute one's own actions to external factors but the actions of others to internal factors. The physicians' tendency to make external attributions for their own lack of exercise (eg, "I'm too busy") while attributing their patients' lack of exercise to internal factors (eg, "they are lazy") best supports the actor-observer bias. (Choice B) Experimenter bias occurs when researchers deliberately or inadvertently influence their study, often leading to results that confirm what the researcher was expecting. Experimenter bias is not a type of attributional bias, and it is not illustrated by the results. (Choice C) The fundamental attribution error, an attributional bias, is the tendency to blame others' behavior on internal (eg, "they are lazy") instead of external factors. The fundamental attribution error fails to account for the finding regarding physicians' attributions for their own behaviors. (Choice D) Self-serving bias is an attributional bias that occurs when individuals credit their successes to internal factors but blame their failures on external factors. The results do not provide information about attributions related to success. Educational objective: Attributional biases are common errors in thinking that occur when people attempt to explain behavior (their own or someone else's). The actor-observer bias occurs when individuals attribute their own behavior to external factors but attribute the behavior of others to internal factors.

To Investigate Attributions Related to Exercise, an Experimenter Interviewed Primary