Dispositional attribution is the tendency to suggest that behavior is the result of innate personality traits. For example, if someone is queuing at the movie theater and another person cuts, the victim might assume that the cutter is thoughtless or rude, and that these internal traits led to the decision to jump the line. The opposite is situational attribution, where people decide that behavior is based on situational factors. In the movie line example, the victim may notice that someone else hit the cutter, and she may not have intended to push the line.
Understanding attribution is an important part of social psychology, the study of human behaviors in social and group contexts. Complex factors play a role in how people decide to attribute their own behavior, as well as the behavior of people around them. As someone evaluates another party after committing an action, considerations such as race, gender, and ethnicity can determine how the observer chooses to explain the action.
Situational and dispositional play a role in the fundamental attribution error, a well-known phenomenon in social psychology. People tend to blame inborn traits for the failings of others, demonstrating dispositional attribution: "She can't get a job because she's lazy" or "She's too bad to be a good teacher." In contrast, when asked to explain their own behavior, they state that it was the situation: "I can't find a job because the market is tight"; "I had trouble teaching that class because the students were disruptive."
The phenomenon of dispositional attribution can play a role in numerous social attitudes. In discussions of welfare programs, for example, some people may engage in dispositional attribution and argue that recipients of government benefits are lazy or fraudulent and don't really need help. Proponents of such programs might argue that situational factors like employment disparities are to blame for social inequality.
In any situation where individuals interact and engage in activities, they make a series of snap judgments about each other, and attributions are among these judgments. In addition to the fundamental attribution error, there may be a tendency to suggest that positive personal behaviors are the result of innately good traits, while personal faults are clearly the result of situations. Conversely, when other people do well, it can be attributed to the situation, while failures are seen as the consequence of negative character traits. The tendency to emphasize situational or dispositional attribution more, depending on who is involved and what they are doing, can reveal biases, some of which may be internalized rather than overt.