What is the tendency to assign causes for behavior as being either internal or external?

The concept refers to attributions, which are the explanations people provide for the behavior of themselves and others. In the context of attributions, internal causes relate to personal characteristics, such as traits, motives, or intentions, while external causes consider situational factors or environmental influences. This framework is critical in understanding social perceptions and behavioral cues, as it helps individuals make sense of the actions they observe.

Attributions play a significant role in how we interact with others and interpret their actions. For instance, if someone fails to complete a task, an internal attribution would suggest they are lazy or incompetent, while an external attribution might consider factors such as a heavy workload or unforeseen circumstances impacting their performance. Understanding this distinction is essential in managing people since it can influence team dynamics, performance evaluations, and conflict resolution.

The other concepts, while related to social and organizational behavior, describe different phenomena. Self-serving bias focuses specifically on the tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external factors. Consensus concerns the extent to which people's behaviors are consistent across situations or groups. Contrast refers to the cognitive bias where the perception of something is influenced by its preceding context. While all these terms are important in understanding human behavior, attributions specifically capture the essence of assigning causes to behavior