external attribution

Definition. n. When trying to explain a person's behavior (what is referred to in psychology as making an attribution for the person's behavior), an external attribution is made when it is assumed that the cause of an event is some factor outside (or external to) the person being observed. In other words, an external attribution suggests that the individual is not personally responsible for the behavior or its outcome.

Explanation. Attribution theory states that people have a desire to explain events in the world around them. Making external attributions indicates that the reason an event happened is due to factors purely outside the person (e.g., luck) rather than factors internal to the person (e.g., personality, ability, effort exerted). External factors are outside a person's control. People tend to make an external attribution when negative events happen to them or their friends or when positive events happen to their competitors. People tend not to take the blame for their own negative circumstances, and they tend to downplay their competitors' credit for their successes. For example, when students score poorly on a test, they tend to make external attributions by deciding that the poor performance was due to their being unlucky that day, the teacher's not being good at explaining the material, or the teacher's being bad at writing tests. Students in such circumstances can use many explanations rather than taking responsibility for the outcome themselves (rather than acknowledging that the failure may have been their own fault because they did not study enough or they are not as bright in the content area as some of the other students). However, when student competitors do well, the other students frequently assume that their competitors succeed because the teacher grades unfairly or that they are just lucky.

People may use external attributions to preserve their own self-esteem. Making external attributions for failures allows people still to feel good about themselves despite the failure. Similarly, attributing other people’s successes to something other than their ability makes their accomplishments less threatening to the individual’s self-esteem. Making external attributions also influences the way people react to similar events in the future. For example, if students think their grades are due to factors outside their control, they are not likely to change their behavior to improve their grades (e.g., studying harder next time).    

- VKB, LAB