THE CORRESPONDENCE BIAS

The correspondence bias is the tendency to draw inferences about a per son's unique and enduring dispositions from behaviors that can be enti rely explained by the situations in which they occur. Although this te ndency is one of the most fundamental phenomena in social psychology, its causes and consequences remain poorly understood. This article ske tches an intellectual history of the correspondence bias as an evolvin g problem in social psychology, describes 4 mechanisms (lack of awaren ess, unrealistic expectations, inflated categorizations, and incomplet e corrections) that produce distinct forms of correspondence bias, and discusses how the consequences of correspondence-biased inferences ma y perpetuate such inferences.