Center for Behavioral Decision Research

CBDR : Seminar Series : Seminar by Carey Morewedge

Negativity Bias in Attribution of External Agency

	presented by Carey Morewedge (Carnegie Mellon University)


	Thursday, October 29	link to paper
	12pm
	PH 223D	link to Speaker's Site

	Abstract:

	This research investigated whether people are more likely to attribute outcomes to external agents when outcomes are negative rather than neutral or positive. Participants more often believed that ultimatum game partners were humans rather than computers when the partners offered unusually unfavorable divisions than unusually favorable divisions (Experiment 1A), even when their human partners had no financial stake in the game (Experiment 1B). In subsequent experiments, participants were most likely to infer that gambles were influenced by an impartial participant when the outcomes of those gambles were losses rather than wins (Experiments 2 and 3), independent of the probability of the outcomes. The results suggest a negative agency bias—negative outcomes are more often attributed to the influence of external agents than similarly positive and neutral outcomes, independent of their subjective probability.

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