One of the most amazing features of human beings is this: They can
explain anything. Maybe it comes from the fact that we are parents and our
children keep asking us, "Why?" And as older, superior beings, we
just naturally have the proper explanation to our kid's request. ("Why did
I drop that sofa on my foot? I did it to show you what a severe bruise looks
like, that's why.")
No matter the
cause, we have a strong need to understand and explain what is going on in our
world. Because people must explain, it opens up some interesting influence
possibilities. Think about it for a minute. If you can affect how people
understand and explain what is going on, you might be able to influence them,
too.
First, let's
understand the basic principles of how people explain things. Then we will look
at applications.
Attribution Theory
There is a theory about how people explain things. It is called Attribution Theory. The theory is really quite simple despite its rather strange sounding name. (When you see the term, "attribution," you should think of the term, "explanation," as a synonym.) The theory works like this.
When we offer
explanations about why things happened, we can give one of two types. One, we
can make an external attribution. Two, we can make internal attribution. An
external attribution (get ready for this) assigns causality to an outside agent
or force. Or as kids would say, "The devil made me do it." An
external attribution claims that some outside thing motivated the event. By
contrast, an internal attribution assigns causality to factors within the
person. Or as the sinner would say, "I'm guilty, grant me
forgiveness." An internal attribution claims that the person was directly
responsible for the event.
Here are some
common examples. You are taking lot of efforts to achieve your targets however
when it comes the target achievement, You
take a peek and see, ahhhhh, below targets. You think about these disappointing
results for a minute and realize what a lousy manager you've got and how he is
not supporting you and how unfair the target set were and . . . you make a lot
of external attributions. What caused the below targets? Events outside of you.
External things.
Now, on the next review you take a peek and see,
ahhhh, a above targets. Well, what can I say? When you're hot, you're hot. If
you've got it, flaunt it. Some people are born great. Where's the causality?
Inside of you, right?
You assign
causality to factors within the person and make internal attributions.
Okay, this is
real simple. When the world asks us, "Why?" we provide either an
internal attribution or an external attribution. Pretty obvious, but what has
this got to do influence?
Consider this
chain of events.
- The world asks me,
"Why?"
- I provide an attribution.
- My future behavior depends on
the type of attribution.
Now, if we can control the attributions people
make, then we can influence their future behavior, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment