Generalization of the negativity effect to self-attributions
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Published on: August 25, 2023
1Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces 88003-8001, USA. jennbrow@nmsu.edu
Abstract:
In 1979 Reeder and Brewer reported that people make stronger attributions for negative behaviors than for positive ones, following Hastorf and Cantril's statement that people are motivated to maintain positive self-views. The present study tested whether 67 participants would make stronger self-attributions for negative behaviors than for positive ones by having them indicate the number of times that they had to engage in a specific behavior before it would become a trait they possess. Analysis confirmed that participants make stronger self-attributions for negative behaviors than for positive behaviors.
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