Individual differences in correspondence bias: Measurement, consequences, and correction of biased interpersonal attributions
Scopelliti, Min, McCormick, Kassam and Morewedge developed and validated a ten-item Neglect of External Demands scale. Scale development used 150 US adults on an online platform, and a test-retest check used 75 respondents who retook the survey three weeks later. Seven online samples of 1,074 participants in all were used to compare the scale with 21 established measures; it was only weakly related to intelligence, decision-making ability, cognitive reflection and personality, and scores did not differ by gender, age or ethnicity. Higher scores predicted more blame for harm, with a larger effect for accidental harm, less reliance on job-difficulty-adjusted performance in promotion decisions (also in a sample of undergraduate business majors), more betting on a quizmaster with an unfair advantage, and a more favourable view of, and more investment in, a fund that had underperformed the market. The authors also report that making situational information easier to process reduced the bias most among the people most prone to it.
Scopelliti, Min, McCormick, Kassam and Morewedge developed and validated a ten-item Neglect of External Demands scale. Scale development used 150 US adults on an online platform, and a test-retest check used 75 respondents who retook the survey three weeks later. Seven online samples of 1,074 participants in all were used to compare the scale with 21 established measures; it was only weakly related to intelligence, decision-making ability, cognitive reflection and personality, and scores did not differ by gender, age or ethnicity. Higher scores predicted more blame for harm, with a larger effect for accidental harm, less reliance on job-difficulty-adjusted performance in promotion decisions (also in a sample of undergraduate business majors), more betting on a quizmaster with an unfair advantage, and a more favourable view of, and more investment in, a fund that had underperformed the market. The authors also report that making situational information easier to process reduced the bias most among the people most prone to it.
Written from the full text, open-access copy of the Management Science paper, 2026-11-03.
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Scopelliti, I., Min, H. L., McCormick, E., Kassam, K. S., & Morewedge, C. K. (2018). Individual differences in correspondence bias: Measurement, consequences, and correction of biased interpersonal attributions. Management Science, 64(4), 1879-1910. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2016.2668 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2668