Consequences of the bias toward personality explanations of people’s behaviour

In my last article, I described how the notion of personality is so pervasive that it leads people to be biased in how they interpret and explain other people’s behaviour with such phenomena as the fundamental attribution error and the actor-observer difference. In this article, I will focus on the consequences of such biases for our emotions, our behaviours and our relationships.

Emotional consequences

The tendency to explain other people’s behaviour based on their personality has emotional consequences. The types of emotions we experience when we attribute other people’s actions to their personalities depends on the kind of behaviour we observe. When we observe a person engaging in a favourable behaviour, our tendency to attribute that behaviour to the person’s personality will result our experiencing positive emotions—more positive than if we were to attribute the behaviour to situational factors.

For example, if we saw someone perform a favour for someone, we would tend to attribute the favourable behaviour to their personality by thinking that the behaviour was a result of their having a ‘caring personality’. This would, in turn, make it more likely we would experience positive emotions regarding the person compared to if we had attributed their behaviour to situational factors which may have contributed to it.

On the other hand, when we observe a person engaging in an unfavourable behaviour, our tendency to attribute that behaviour to the person’s personality will result our experiencing negative emotions—more negative than if we were to attribute the behaviour to situational factors. For example, if we saw someone criticize someone, we would tend to attribute the unfavourable behaviour to their personality by thinking that the behaviour was a result of their having an ‘uncaring personality’. This would, in turn, make it more likely we would experience negative emotions regarding the person compared to if we had attributed their behaviour to situational factors which may have contributed to it.

Behavioural consequences

Just as the tendency to explain other people’s behaviour based on their personality has emotional consequences, this tendency also has behavioural consequences. And just as the types of emotions we experience when we attribute other people’s actions to their personalities depends on the kind of behaviour we observe, likewise the types of behaviours in which we engage when we attribute other people’s actions to their personalities depends on the kind of behaviour we observe.

When we observe a person engaging in a favourable behaviour, our tendency to attribute that behaviour to the person’s personality will result our engaging in favourable behaviours toward the person—more positive than if we were to attribute the behaviour to situational factors. For example, if we saw someone perform a favour for someone, we would tend to behave favourably toward the person because of our thinking that the behaviour was a result of their having a ‘caring personality’. This favourable behaviour would have stemmed from our being more likely to experience positive emotions regarding the person compared to if we had attributed their behaviour to situational factors which may have contributed to it.

On the other hand, when we observe a person engaging in an unfavourable behaviour, our tendency to attribute that behaviour to the person’s personality will result our engaging in unfavourable behaviours toward the person—more negative than if we were to attribute the behaviour to situational factors. For example, if we saw a person criticize someone, we would tend to behave unfavourably toward the person because of our thinking that the behaviour was a result of their having an ‘uncaring personality’. This unfavourable behaviour would have stemmed from our being more likely to experience negative emotions regarding the person compared to if we had attributed their behaviour to situational factors which may have contributed to it.

Relationship consequences

Finally, the tendency to explain other people’s behaviour based on their personality has relationship consequences. Research indicates that people who are happy with their relationships and their partners make different attributions for their partners’ behaviours compared with those who are unhappy. Those who are happy tend to attribute positive behaviours by their partners to their partner’s personality (e.g., “He bought me flowers–What a great guy!”) and attribute negative behaviours of their partners to circumstances (e.g., “It’s true he was late for dinner, but the traffic was pretty bad today and besides, he’s not usually late”).

Those who are unhappy with their relationships and their partners do the opposite. They lean toward attributing positive partner behaviours to circumstances (e.g., “Yes the flowers he bought me are nice but he wouldn’t have bought them unless they were on sale”) and attribute negative partner behaviours to their partner’s personality (e.g., “He’s late for dinner. All he thinks about is himself!”). What is the take-home message? How you explain events and behaviours in your relationships can be as important as what actually happens in your relationships in determining whether you will be happy or unhappy in your relationships.

In summary, the bias people display in tending to explain other people’s behaviour based on personality can have emotional, behavioural and relationship consequences. Whether these consequences are positive or negative depends on a number of factors.

May you be aware of the consequences of the kinds of explanations you make for people’s behaviour,

-Dr. Pat