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attribution
You rate people as smarter based on their role.
A 1977 study found that participants rated 'questioners' in a quiz show as more intelligent than 'contestants'.
The questioners chose the topics they were knowledgeable about, creating an illusion of superior intelligence that observers attributed to inherent trait ability. The participants failed to account for the situational advantage given to the person who controlled the questions.
You confuse situational power with intellectual merit.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Ross, Amabile, and Steinmetz, 1977
- What the check found
- This is a foundational study in social psychology widely accepted as evidence for the fundamental attribution error.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.