The Only Explanation of the Actor-Observer Bias You’ll Ever Need

“Mary is just lazy! She should stop that fad diet thing and begin to exercise. She keeps looking for an easy trick, but it doesn’t exist,” Ann said.

That certainly sounds like common sense. Except that Ann is at least 50 pounds overweight and is in no position to criticize someone’s weight-loss strategies or sedentary lifestyle. Her weight has been stuck at 200 pounds for as long as she can remember — she blames her parents and, perhaps, a mysterious health issue. “They always told me to finish everything on my plate,” she says.

Actor-Observer Difference

The Mary-Ann example illustrates the actor-observer bias, where Ann is the observer and Mary is the actor. The actor is the one whose behavior and outcomes are being explained, while the observer is the one watching and judging the actor. At the same time, the observer may explain their own similar behavior very differently.

The Actor-Observer Asymmetry

The actor-observer bias is also known as the actor-observer asymmetry and describes a tendency to explain our own behavior differently from how we explain other people’s behavior.

The Actor-Observer Bias vs. Locus of Control

Similarly to locus of control, the actor-observer bias deals with how we explain events and behavior. The difference is that locus of control is about a person’s more general tendency to see outcomes as being influenced by internal or external factors, while the actor-observer bias is about differences in how we explain our own behavior compared with other people’s behavior.

The Actor-Observer Bias Definition

The classic definition of actor-observer bias describes our tendency to attribute our own actions more to external or situational causes while attributing other people’s actions more to internal causes.

In other words, when we judge our own behavior, we may emphasize situational factors, while when we judge other people’s behavior, we may overemphasize dispositional factors — their character, personality, or intentions — and minimize the influence of circumstances.

It is worth noting that this pattern is not universal. Later research has found that the actor-observer difference can vary considerably depending on the situation and the type of behavior being explained.

The Paradox

The actor-observer discrepancy may become particularly noticeable when something goes wrong. When judging another person, we may be quick to blame their character while overlooking circumstances that contributed to the outcome. When explaining our own behavior, however, those circumstances suddenly become much easier to see.

We may also be more susceptible to this type of attribution error when explaining the behavior of people we don’t know very well. When it comes to friends and family members, however, we often have much more information about their way of thinking, motivation, history, and circumstances. This additional information can make situational explanations easier to recognize.

Actor-Observer Bias vs. Fundamental Attribution Error

Now that you’ve learned about the actor-observer bias, you may be wondering how it is different from the concept of fundamental attribution error. Aren’t they the same thing? Both terms are used in social psychology to describe attribution biases, and they definitely seem very similar.

The difference is that the fundamental attribution error focuses on how we explain other people’s behavior, particularly our tendency to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational ones.

The actor-observer bias, on the other hand, compares the explanations we give for other people’s behavior with the explanations we give for our own.

To make it clear, the observer doesn’t only judge the actor — they may judge the actor and themselves by different standards.

Actor-Observer Bias vs. Self-Serving Bias

To make things even more confusing, we also have the concept of self-serving bias.

The term “self-serving bias” refers to our tendency to see ourselves in an overly favorable light in order to protect our self-esteem. This can involve attributing our successes to our abilities and hard work while blaming external factors for our failures.

Just like the fundamental attribution error, self-serving bias focuses mainly on one side of the comparison. Self-serving bias concerns how we explain our own successes and failures, while actor-observer bias compares explanations of our own behavior with explanations of other people’s behavior.

To summarize:

Fundamental attribution error –> how we explain other people’s behavior
Self-serving bias –> how we explain our own successes and failures
Actor-observer bias –> differences between how we explain our own behavior and other people’s behavior