ATTRIBUTIONAL BIASES IN INDIVIDUALISTIC AND COLLECTIVISTIC CULTURES -A COMPARISON OF AMERICANS WITH SAUDIS

The individualism/collectivism distinction led to hypotheses that Saud is, in comparison with Americans, would engage in 1) fewer internal at tributions, 2) less self-serving bias, 3) more in-group-serving bias ( both family-serving and in-group nationality-serving), and 4) more out -group-derogating bias. It was also predicted that in both cultures, i mmoral behavior and successful achievement would result in more intern al attributions than would moral behavior or failure. A sample of univ ersity students in each country made attributions from eight vignettes . As expected, Americans were more internal and Saudis showed more out -group-derogating and intergroup bias. Both cultures also showed the p redicted difference in attributions for morality and achievement. Alth ough individual-level measurements showed Saudis to be more collectivi stic than Americans, these measures had no significant effect on attri butions, once culture was controlled.