Ego-involvement and Attributions for Success and Failure

Investigated the impact of task importance on the causal attributions for success and failure on a bogus social-perceptiveness task which was given to 52 undergraduates. Consistent with previous research, Ss assumed more personal responsibility for success than failure. Moreover, the more valid and important the social-perceptiveness test was presented as being, the more pronounced was the effect of outcome on the Ss’ attributions. Results favor a motivational as opposed to an information-processing explanation of asymmetries in causal attribution.