Module 03 · Impression Formation印象形成
How Do We Know What Traits People Have?他人特质的归因判断
Introducing Attributions 介绍归因
Now that we’ve given you an idea of how traits and categories enable us to represent the information we’ve learned about other people, it’s time to talk about how we go about creating that information. The short answer is that we create our knowledge of what people are like by making attributions, or inferences (also called educated guesses) about the causes of events.
现在我们已经向您展示了特质和类别如何帮助我们表示关于他人的信息，现在是时候讨论我们如何创建这些信息了。简短的回答是我们通过做出归因，或推断（也称为有根据的猜测）关于事件原因的知识来了解人们是什么样的。
Imagine the following exchange with a casual friend when you bump into her unexpectedly:
想象一下，当你意外地遇到一个普通朋友时，你们之间的以下对话：
You: Hi. 嗨。
Your friend: Yeah, right! Whatever! 是啊，对啊！随便吧！
In this situation, your first thought might be, I wonder what’s going on. Why is she in a bad mood? You begin considering possible explanations. Maybe it was something that I did that made her act like that. Maybe she just got scolded by her boss at work. Or, maybe, she’s just a rude person. These explanations of why people act the way they do are all examples of attributions. Attributions about the behavior of another person are very helpful for a number of reasons. They may allow us to determine what traits the person has, predict the person’s behavior in the future, and, perhaps most importantly for this course, determine whether we like the person or not.
在这种情况下，你可能会首先想到，我在想发生了什么事。她为什么心情不好？你开始考虑可能的原因。也许是因为我做了一些让她表现得那样的事情。也许她在工作中被老板责备了。或者，也许，她只是个粗鲁的人。这些关于人们行为原因的解释都是归因的例子。关于他人行为的归因在很多方面都非常有帮助。它们可能让我们确定这个人的特质，预测这个人未来的行为，也许对于这门课程来说最重要的是，确定我们是否喜欢这个人。
Types of Attributions 类型归因
We can divide the types of attributions we make into two broad categories: internal attributions and external attributions. When we make an internal attribution, also known as a dispositional attribution, we conclude that a person acted the way that they did because of something about them as a person, such as their personality traits, their attitudes, or their current mood. For example, in the case of the friend who was rude to you, you may decide that your friend is simply a rude person, and perhaps you decide to distance yourself from her as a result.
我们可以将我们做出的归因类型分为两大类：内部归因和外部归因。当我们做出内部归因，也称为倾向性归因时，我们得出结论，一个人之所以这样做，是因为他们作为一个人的一些特质，例如他们的性格特征、他们的态度或他们当前的情绪。例如，在朋友对你无礼的情况下，你可能会决定你的朋友只是一个无礼的人，也许你决定因此与她保持距离。
When we make an external attribution, also known as a situational attribution, we conclude that a behavior was the result of the situation or the context. For example, you may decide your friend’s rudeness was due to the bad day that she was having, not due to something about her personality. External attributions typically don’t change our impressions of people because they don’t give us information about a person’s traits. In the case of your friend, making an external attribution about her behavior might make you less likely to decide to distance yourself from her than you would have been after making an internal attribution.
当我们做出外部归因，也称为情境归因时，我们得出结论，某种行为是情境或背景的结果。例如，你可能会决定你朋友的粗鲁是因为她那天过得不好，而不是因为她个性中的某些问题。外部归因通常不会改变我们对人的印象，因为它们不会给我们提供关于一个人特质的信息。在你朋友的情况下，对她行为的情境归因可能会让你比在做出内部归因后更不愿意决定与她保持距离。
This example illustrates the important role of attributions in our relationships. Our friend was rude to us, but the implications of this behavior for our relationship were less a function of the behavior itself and more a result of the attribution we made. The same can be true for positive behaviors. We might decide a coworker who gives us a card on our birthday is doing so because he’s a nice person (a positive internal attribution), and so we begin liking him more—or we might decide that he’s doing so because he’s self-serving and wants us to do something for him in return (a negative internal attribution), so we begin liking him less. Which is the actual reason for his behavior? We may never know, and the actual reason is less important than our inference/educated guess about the reason.
这个例子说明了归因在我们关系中的重要作用。我们的朋友对我们无礼，但这种行为对我们关系的影响更多是源于我们做出的归因，而不是行为本身。同样的情况也适用于积极的行为。我们可能会决定，在生日时给我们送卡的同事这样做是因为他是个好人（积极的内在归因），所以我们开始更喜欢他——或者我们可能会决定他这样做是因为他自私，希望我们为他做些什么作为回报（消极的内在归因），所以我们开始不那么喜欢他。他行为背后的真正原因是什么？我们可能永远不知道，真正的原因不如我们对原因的推断/有根据的猜测重要。
Making Attributions Rationally 合理归因
Given how important attributions are, you might be wondering how we come up with the attributions we make. How do we decide if the person who canceled our date really had to work late (an external factor) or if they were just not that into us (an internal factor)? The primary model of attribution, the covariation model, says that we look at the patterns of people’s behavior over time to determine why they do something. For example, we could use a simplified version of this model to conclude that, if this person consistently cancels dates with us and no one else, that is good evidence that canceling this date might mean they’re not that into us. On the other hand, if this is the only time they’ve canceled on us, and they cancel on other people quite frequently, then we might be more willing to infer that they’re canceling this time because they really have to work late.
考虑到归因的重要性，你可能想知道我们是如何得出我们所做的归因的。我们如何判断取消我们约会的人是真的很晚需要工作（外部因素）还是他们只是对我们不感兴趣（内部因素）？归因的主要模型，协变模型，表示我们通过观察人们在一段时间内的行为模式来确定他们为什么做某事。例如，我们可以使用这个模型的简化版本来得出结论，如果这个人一直取消我们的约会而不会取消别人的约会，那么这可能是他们对我们不感兴趣的很好证据。另一方面，如果这是他们第一次取消我们的约会，而他们经常取消别人的约会，那么我们可能更愿意推断他们这次取消是因为他们真的需要加班工作。
This model is considered a prescriptive model because it derives how people make attributions from principles of how we should make attributions if we’re being completely rational. While this model does an acceptable job of predicting what attributions people make, there are some times its predictions are wrong. That is, there are times when people systematically depart from rationality—or, put another way, when people consistently make a particular type of mistake when they make attributions.
此模型被视为规范性模型，因为它从我们应该如何进行归因的原则中推导出人们如何进行归因。虽然这个模型在预测人们会做出何种归因方面做得可接受，但有时其预测是错误的。也就是说，有时人们会系统地偏离理性——或者说，当人们在做出归因时，会持续犯下某种特定类型的错误。
The Fundamental Attribution Error 基本归因错误
What type of attribution errors do people consistently make? Simply put, we make more internal attributions than we should. We tend to think that a person performs an action because of the type of person they are, not because of the situation they are in. Because this bias is so pervasive (at least in Western cultures), psychologists have called it the fundamental attribution error (FAE; Ross, 1977).
人们持续犯哪种归因错误？简单来说，我们做出的内部归因比应有的要多。我们倾向于认为一个人之所以采取某种行动，是因为他们的性格类型，而不是因为他们所处的环境。因为这个偏见非常普遍（至少在西方文化中），心理学家称之为基本归因错误（FAE；罗斯，1977）。
So, in our previous example, the FAE would make us more likely to irrationally conclude that our date canceled because of something about them, not their situation. That is, we cast aside the idea that they canceled because they had to stay at work and instead conclude that they don’t like us, they’re not dependable, or they’re just plain rude. One reason that observers commit this error is that people are much easier to see and hear than situations are. In other words, we may see and hear our date saying, “I’m sorry, I can’t come,” but the forces that are keeping them at work are invisible to us. This makes it much more conceivable that our date is the cause of their actions.
因此，在我们之前的例子中，FAE 会使我们更有可能不合理地得出结论，认为我们的约会取消是因为他们个人的原因，而不是他们的处境。也就是说，我们摒弃了他们因为必须留在工作而取消的想法，反而得出结论，他们不喜欢我们，他们不可靠，或者他们只是很无礼。观察者犯这个错误的一个原因是，人们比情况更容易被看到和听到。换句话说，我们可能看到和听到我们的约会对象说“对不起，我不能来了”，但让他们留在工作场所的力量对我们来说是看不见的。这使得我们认为约会对象是他们行为的原因变得更加可信。
In an attraction and relationships context, it’s important to understand that the FAE can affect the way you view others. In the case of the previous example, automatically assuming that a person is rude or that they are not that into you might lead to a missed opportunity to meet a compatible person. What can you do about this? Being aware of the potential problem is an important first step. You can correct for this bias when you remember that it can occur. For example, you might think, It’s really rude if this person is just blowing me off, but I know that I might be too quick to blame them because of the FAE. So, maybe I should consider the possibility that they’ve actually been caught at work.
在吸引力和关系背景下，了解 FAE 可能会影响你对他人看法是很重要的。在先前的例子中，自动假设一个人是粗鲁的或者他们对你不感兴趣，可能会导致错过遇到合适人选的机会。你能做些什么呢？意识到潜在问题是重要的一步。当你记得这种偏见可能发生时，你可以对此进行纠正。例如，你可能会想，如果这个人只是忽略我，那真是太粗鲁了，但我知道我可能因为 FAE 而过于迅速地责怪他们。所以，也许我应该考虑他们实际上可能在工作场合被耽误的可能性。
It’s also important to realize that other people may be committing this error when they are considering your behavior. If you smile at someone, the FAE suggests that people are more likely to think that behavior means something about you (e.g., that you’re friendly or that you like them) rather than that you’re just following social conventions and being polite. Although we’ve talked about how you can correct your own biases, it’s relatively hard in real-world settings to get other people to correct their own biases. Therefore, it’s useful to be aware that people might think that your behaviors always reflect the way you are and to do your best to make sure your behaviors accurately reflect the impression you’d like to make.
也很重要的是要意识到，当他们在考虑你的行为时，其他人可能也在犯这个错误。如果你对某人微笑，FAE 建议人们更有可能认为这种行为意味着关于你的某些事情（例如，你很友好或你喜欢他们），而不是你只是在遵循社会习俗和礼貌。尽管我们已经讨论了如何纠正自己的偏见，但在现实世界中要让别人纠正自己的偏见相对困难。因此，了解人们可能会认为你的行为总是反映了你的本质，并尽你所能确保你的行为准确反映了你希望留下的印象是有用的。