Have you answered the Attribution Scale twice as instructed? If no, then you are not playing
by the rules and should stop reading now. If yes, then read on.

Please count the number of times you circled "depends on the situation" on each rating sheet.
Do you have a greater tendency to attribute the other person's behavior to personal dispositions,
while attributing your behavior to "depends on the situation"?

Why does the tendency to attribute other's behavior to personal dispositions, but attribute our
own behavior to the situation? We tend to attribute causation to the focus of our attention, which
is different when we are observing than when we are acting. When another person is the "actor,"
our focus is on that person, and subsequently that person seems to cause whatever happens.
However, when we act, the environment or situation is the focus of our attention and subsequently
the environment or situation explains our behavior.

Do any of you remember a horrible accident back in 1979? The event was a concert being given
by "The Who" at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. When the Coliseum doors were
finally opened, people stampeded and several concert goers were trampled to death and many
more were injured. Time magazine, which had reported on the tragedy, later received a letter from
an outside observer and one from an actor participant. How does each attribute the cause of the
accident?

    The observer:
            The violently destructive message that The Who and other rock groups deliver leaves
            me little surprised that they attract a mob that will trample human beings to death to
            gain better seats. Of greater concern is a respected news magazine's adulation of this
            sick phenomenon.

    The actor:
            While standing in the crowd at Riverfront Coliseum, I distinctly remember feeling that
             I was being punished for being a rock fan. My sister and I joked about this, unaware
            of the horror happening around us. Later, those jokes came back to us grimly as we
            watched the news. How many lives will be lost before the punitive and inhuman policy
            of festival seating at rock concerts is outlawed?