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On Being Happy and Mistaken: Mood Effects on the Fundamental Attribution Error

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

August 1998
75(2):318-331

DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.75.2.318

Authors:

Joseph P. Forgas

UNSW Sydney

Does temporary mood influence the occurrence of the fundamental attribution error (FAE)? Based on recent affect-cognition theorizing and research on attributions, 3 experiments predicted and found that negative moods decrease and positive moods increase the FAE, because of the information-processing consequences of these affective states. In Experiment 1, happy mood enhanced and sad mood reduced dispositional attributions based on coerced essays advocating unpopular opinions. Experiment 2 replicated this effect using an unobtrusive mood induction in a field study. Experiment 3 further confirmed these results and also showed that changes in the FAE were linked to mood-induced differences in processing style, as indicated by memory data and confirmed by mediational analyses. The results are discussed in terms of the cognitive processing strategies that mediate mood effects on attributions. The implications of the findings for everyday inferences and for contemporary theories of affect and cognition are considered.

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Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

1998,

0022-3514/98/S3.00

On Being Happy and Mistaken:

Mood Effects on the Fundamental Attribution Error

Joseph P. Forgas

University of New South Wales

Does temporary mood influence the occurrence of the fundamental attribution error (FAE)? Based

on recent affect-cognition theorizing and research on attributions, 3 experiments predicted and found

that negative moods decrease and positive moods increase the FAE, because of the information-

processing consequences of these affective states. In Experiment 1, happy mood enhanced and sad

mood reduced dispositional attributions based on coerced essays advocating unpopular opinions.

Experiment 2 replicated this effect using an unobtrusive mood induction in a field study. Experiment

3 further confirmed these results and also showed that changes in the FAE were linked to mood-

induced differences in processing style, as indicated by memory data and confirmed by mediational

analyses. The results are discussed in terms of the cognitive processing strategies that mediate mood

effects on attributions. The implications of the findings for everyday inferences and for contemporary

theories of affect and cognition are considered.

Explaining the behavior of others is one of the most critical

and demanding cognitive tasks people face in everyday social

life (Heider, 1958; Jones, 1979). The fundamental attribution

error (FAE), or correspondence bias, refers to a pervasive ten-

dency by people to underestimate the impact of situational

forces and overestimate the role of dispositional factors when

making such judgments (Gilbert & Malone, 1995; Ross, 1977).

Despite the critical importance of causal attributions about oth-

ers,

little is known about how different psychological states,

such as a person's mood, may affect causal inferences. Drawing

on past research on attributions (Jones, 1990; Quattrone, 1982;

Ross,

1977), as well as recent affect-cognition theorizing

(Bower, 1991; Clore, Schwarz, & Conway, 1994; Fiedler, 1988,

1991;

Forgas, 1992a, 1995a), these three experiments explore

the possibility that good moods can accentuate, and bad moods

inhibit, the FAE as a result of the information-processing conse-

quences of these affective states.

The FAE

There has been a strong philosophical inclination in liberal

Western cultures, at least since the Enlightenment, to emphasize

the causal role of independent, self-reliant individuals in shaping

events (Sampson, 1988; Smith & Bond, 1994). One psychologi-

cal reflection of this individualistic cultural orientation has been

the tendency for people to underestimate the impact of situa-

tional factors and overestimate the role of dispositional factors in

This project was supported by a Special Investigator Award from the

Australian Research Council and by the Research Prize from the Alexan-

der von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. The contribution of Stephanie

Moylan is gratefully acknowledged.

Further information on this research project can be found at

http://www.psy.unsw.edu.au/—joef.jforgas.htm.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joseph

Forgas, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney

2052,

Australia. Electronic mail may be sent tojp.forgas@unsw.edu.au.

controlling behavior, a bias sometimes labeled the "fundamental

attribution error" (Ross, 1977) or the "correspondence bias"

(Gilbert & Malone, 1995).

An early demonstration of the FAE was reported by Jones

and Harris (1967), some 10 years before the phenomenon re-

ceived its better known name from Ross (1977). On the basis

of the theory of correspondent inferences, Jones and Harris

argued that

when a person expresses a high probability opinion, attribution of

underlying attitude will not vary as a function of a perceived choice;

when an unexpected or unpopular opinion is expressed, correspon-

dent attribution will vary directly with the amount of choice per-

ceived, (p. 3)

These investigators presented people with a brief essay advocat-

ing a popular (anti-Castro) or an unpopular (pro-Castro) opin-

ion, allegedly written by a person who either freely chose to

write it or was coerced into doing so. As predicted, people

inferred stronger links between underlying attitudes and the es-

say when the speaker argued for an unpopular view and chose

to do so freely. Surprisingly, however, Jones and Harris also

found that people continued to attribute correspondence between

the essay and private attitudes even when the writer clearly had

no choice, and they did so especially when the attitude was an

unpopular one (the pro-Castro position).

Despite some debate as to just how "fundamental" this error

is (Harvey, Town, & Yarkin, 1981; Miller & Lawson, 1989),

subsequent evidence confirmed that there is indeed a widespread

tendency for people to attribute internal causation and to dis-

count external, situational forces (Burger, 1991; Gilbert & Ma-

lone,

1995; Jones, 1990; Nisbett & Ross, 1980). Judges seem

prepared to discount even highly salient situational factors and

tend to disregard external constraints even when imposed by

themselves (Gilbert & Jones, 1986). It seems that despite clear

evidence that behavior is often shaped by external forces such

as social history and current environment, people will frequently

act as if observed behavior was largely a manifestation of dispo-

sitional qualities.

318

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