Judgeability concerns: The interplay of information, applicability, and accountability in the overattribution bias

In 3 studies, the authors examined the impact of judgeability concerns in t he overattribution bias (OAB; G. A. Quattrone, 1982) by manipulating the pr esence-absence of a constrained essay, the participants' accountability, an d the applicability of the available information. A constrained essay was n either necessary nor sufficient to anchor a judgment. When no essay was cir culated, no OAB occurred in the cases of accountability or of inapplicabili ty (Studies 1 and 2). When the essay was provided, however, both accountabi lity and inapplicability were needed to eliminate the OAB (Studies 2 and 3) . These findings did not result from conversational rules or demand charact eristics. They illustrate that people control the expression of a judgment made under uncertainty; people express the judgment to the extent they feel entitled to do so. The results are discussed in the wider context of curre nt multistage models of the dispositional inference process.