On Attributing Negative Motives to Others Who Disagree With Our Opinions

The research explores the tendency for people to attribute negative motives to others who hold an attitude position that is discrepant from their own. In Studies 1 and 2, American and Canadian respondents indicated their perceptions of U.S. President Bush’s motives for initiating war in Iraq. Consis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2005-11, Vol.31 (11), p.1498-1510
Main Authors: Reeder, Glenn D., Pryor, John B., Wohl, Michael J. A., Griswell, Michael L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Attitude
Attitudes
Bush, George
Canada
Ego
Female
Humans
Intention
Learning
Male
Motivation
Perceptions
Persian Gulf War
Politics
Prejudice
Presidents
Psychological tests
Psychological Theory
Social Identification
Social Perception
Social psychology
United States
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Summary:The research explores the tendency for people to attribute negative motives to others who hold an attitude position that is discrepant from their own. In Studies 1 and 2, American and Canadian respondents indicated their perceptions of U.S. President Bush’s motives for initiating war in Iraq. Consistent with the proposed bias, respondents who disagreed with the war attributed more selfish motivations than did those who supported the war. Study 3 revealed a similar bias when respondents rated the motives of the general citizenry concerning their attitudes about the war, and Study 4 provided evidence of the bias on different attitudinal issues (e.g., abortion and gay marriage). Study 4 also indicated that biased attributions of motive were primarily confined to respondents who were highly involved in the attitude issue. Discussion centers on naïve realism, social identity concerns, and attitude justification as relevant underlying theoretical factors.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167205277093