What is an attribution bias?

An attribution bias is a cognitive (thought) bias that refers to the systematic errors that a person makes when they try to find reasons for their own behaviors and motivations as well as the behaviors and motivations of others. It's normal for people to make attributions (reasons or excuses) for behavior, their own or others.

What is fundamental attribution error & self-serving bias?

Fundamental attribution error is when an individual blames a person for a scenario while ignoring outside factors. This is seen in victim-blaming. Self-serving bias is a type of attribution bias where a person uses the outcome of an action to claim responsibility for the action or not.

Could group-serving bias explain cross-cultural differences in attributions?

If the group-serving bias could explain much of the cross-cultural differences in attributions, then, in this case, when the perpetrator was American, the Chinese should have been more likely to make internal, blaming attributions against an outgroup member, and the Americans to make more external, mitigating ones about their ingroup member.

Does hostile attribution bias affect aggression?

Research has indicated that there is an association between hostile attribution bias and aggression, such that people who are more likely to interpret someone else's behavior as hostile are also more likely to engage in aggressive behavior. See the previous section on aggression for more details on this association.