attribution theory
attribution theory Attribution theory deals with the rules that most people use when they attempt to infer the causes of behaviour they observe. In general, people tend to attribute their own behaviour to the situation or circumstances (social environment) in which they find themselves, while they attribute other people's behaviour to personality factors. An excellent sociological discussion of this phenomenon, as it emerges in the context of beliefs about the causes of poverty and wealth, will be found in James R. Kluegel and Eliot R. Smith's Beliefs about Inequality: Americans' Views of What is and What Ought to Be (1986).
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attribution theory
