Attributional Bias in the Assessment of Emotions

This study examined whether individuals display an attributional bias when identifying the source of their emotions. Specifically, do people favor situational over dispositional explanations when attributing their negative emotions? Sixty-eight participants completed two assessments to identify the cause of emotions—one evaluating their own emotions and another evaluating someone else’s. Dispositional and situational attributions were measured for both positive and negative emotions. The findings show that individuals tend to attribute their own negative emotions more to situational factors than to dispositional ones, but this pattern does not apply to others’ emotions. This same asymmetry was not observed for positive emotions. This study broadens previous research on attributional bias to include personal emotional experiences. The work indicates that self-reports of the source of negative emotions could be biased.