Those Not So Disrespectful Jerks

After taking Snyder’s (1974) Self-Monitoring Scale, I learned that I am a high self-monitor; I scored 13 out of 18. After seeing that I am a high self-monitor it stands to reason that I am very careful of how I act around other. To this point, I hate to admit that I get embarrassed very easily. Specifically, when my phone goes off in class, I get really embarrassed. Even if my phone is on silent, the vibration of the phone against other items in my backpack makes it seem like there is a siren going off in my backpack. In my head the social spotlight is definitely shinning on me (Gilovich, Medvec, & Savitsky, 2000).

                                          (When I figure out it's my phone)

                              (Then me trying to stop the noise)

In my mind, however, my phone shouldn’t go off in class too often due to the fact that I am a graduating senior and am not taking many classes (i.e., I am only taking 8 credit hours - Jazz Dance and Social Psychology). More importantly, the people that call me are my friends and family, and if they truly embody what they are, they know (or should know) when I am in class and should know when NOT to call me. Despite this notion, every time I am in class, without fail, my phone is ALWAYS going off. In other words, after class or during breaks whenever I look at my phone I ALWAYS have at least three to four missed calls and texts from people that, in my mind, should know not to call or text me during that time.

In talking about how frustrated I become with the ‘siren’ that is my cell phone going off in class, I end up subscribing to the actor-observer effect (Jones & Nisbett, 1971). According to Jones and Nisbett (1971) the actor-observer effect basically states that the actors within situations tend to ascribe to situational attributions, while the observers within a situation tend to ascribe to personal attributions. In other words, they found that actors use situational attributions to explain behavior, while observers use personal attributions to explain behavior. Specifically, in my situation, I see my friends and family that call me as disrespectful jerks (personal attributions) while in their mind my friends and family called me because they forgot I was in class because they were busy or forgot what day it was and that I was in class (situational attributions). We as individuals tend to yield to this bias due to two reasons: (1) because we generally have more information about ourselves and how we respond in certain situations than we do about others, or (2) because individuals have different perspectives with respect to differing situations (Jones & Nisbett, 1971).

After leaving class and learning of this effect, I realized that my friends and family were doing nothing wrong and I should just turn my phone completely off during class. Although I dislike admitting it, because I like to think of myself as social psychologically inclined person, I am no different from anyone else and succumb to biases and affects within social psychology just like anyone else.

(n=512)

***I just wish I could be as cool as Natalie Portman.....

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Gilovich, T., Medvec, V. H., & Savitsky, K. (2000). The spotlight effect in social judgment: An egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one’s own actions and appearance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 211-222.

huluDotCom (2008, March, 12). Saturday Night Live - Natalie Portman Raps. Retrieved on February 26, 2013 from, http://youtu.be/v8e6-IeQ0aw.  

Jones, E. E., & Nisbett, R. E. (1971). The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behavior. New York: General Learning Press.

Snyder, M. (1987). The self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526-537.