Abstract
Forty male and 40 female subjects observed the actors' achievement behavior on videotape, and made attribution of the actors' success or failure. Half of the subjects (empathic observers) observed the actors' behavior and made attribution from the actors' point of view. The remaining half of the subjects (standard observers) observed the same behaviors and made attribution from their own point of view. The empathic observers attributed the actors' behavior significantly more to external factors (luck and task difficulty) than the standard observers. This attribution pattern was found to be independent of the actors' outcome, demonstrating that the Jones and Nisbett hypothesis (1972) on actor-observer discrepancy in attribution holds when the observers have different points of view. In addition, female subjects ascribed causes of the actors' behavior significantly more to external factors than male subjects, especially when the actor failed.
