INTERNALITY ATTRIBUTION AND INTERGROUP RELATIONS

In two studies, subjects filled out a questionnaire requiring them to choose between internal and external explanations of desirable or unde sirable events. They, weve also asked to fill out the same questionnai re from another person's point of view, either a member of the ingroup or a member of the outgroup. The fir st study used students as subjec ts and the events were about student life. The second study used emplo yees for subjects and the events,were about the working world. As pred icted on the basis of internality nor ln theory, internal explanations ,were generally found to be chosen more often when the respondent or i magined respondent was said to be a worthy person. The internality sco res were the highest for oneself and for the ingroup member, regardles s of the desirability of the events,. they, were the lowest for the ou tgroup member. These internality attribution effects do not seem to st em from the well-known ingroup;favouring attributions (ultimate attrib ution error). Hence, the internality, norm construct, ir respective of event desirability, provides a new pathway for exploring the evaluati ve effects of inter group relations. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.