Behavior as seen by the actor and as seen by the observer.

Jones and Nisbett proposed that actors are inclined to attribute their behavior to situational causes, while observers of the same behavior are inclined to attribute it to dispositional qualities—stable attitudes and traits—of the actor. Some demonstrational studies consistent with this hypothesis were described. College student observers were found to (a) assume that actors would behave in the future in ways similar to those they had just witnessed (while actors themselves did not share this assumption); (b) describe their best friends choices of girlfriend and college major in terms referring to dispositional qualities of their best friend (while more often describing their own similar choices in terms of properties of the girlfriend or major); and (c) ascribe more personality traits to other people than to themselves. The fact that different individuals often have very different views of the causes of a given persons behavior is a frequent theme of world literature. The diverse perspectives on the behavior of the central figure held by the central figure himself, the people whom he af-fects, the author, and the reader play an im-portant role in works as varied as Rashomon, Huckleberry Finn, the Grand Inquisitor