Attributional perceptions of dating outcomes

Attributional responses made by undergraduate college students to interpersonal relationship outcomes were investigated to determine if the actor-observer effect exists in a similar manner for successful and unsuccessful dating situations, or if the effect is mediated by an egoserving bias tendency. Participants rated the influence of the Weinerian Factors of ability, effort, luck and task difficulty on successful and unsuccessful dating outcomes in terms of Self, an Other Male, or an Other Female. Participants attributed a significantly greater amount of internal responsibility to the others as compared to self for unsuccessful dating outcomes but not for successful outcomes. Additionally, participants, when responding to Self outcomes, were shown to take more responsibility for successful situations as compared to unsuccessful situations. This general pattern was extended to Other Female, but not to Other Male