Cultural difference in attribution of performance: An integration-theoretical analysis

Abstract

Heider's suggestion that Performance = Motivation X Ability has been empirically confirmed by Anderson and Butzin and by Kun, Parsons, and Ruble, using American students as subjects. This multiplying process failed to appear in the present series of three experiments performed on Indian college students. Contrary to the predicted linear fan pattern, the plot of Motivation X Ability effect displayed clear parallelism. An equal-weight averaging rule was able to account for the results obtained in both group and single-subject analyses. Perhaps the integration rules underlying achievement judgments are culture-specific, and Indian college students average motivation and ability information in attribution of future scholastic performance. These results illustrate the potential power that information integration theory provides for the cross-cultural study of social perception and cognition.