Misattributions in human beings

Common misattributions that we may fall victim to, think of THREE of these that you encounter on a fairly regular basis in our own life. Be sure to provide an example of each of these misattributions.

Misattribution is a common concept where individuals often assign the origin of an event to another source that didn’t occur. This is common for routine tasks in which an individual may attribute a behavior to another individual when, in actuality, a complete separate individual conducted the behavior. Misattribution is often divided in two separate elements which include cryptomesia, false memories and source confusion. Each of which occur in varying degrees and magnitudes.

The first example is cryotomnesia where an individual believes they are the original generator of a thought or experience that occurred in the past. This often occurs in academic disciplines with a concept termed, “inadvertent plagiarism.” Here an academician may inadvertently regenerate a previously seen concept or idea, believing it to be their own. This occurs as the individual believes the source is of their own skill and ability when in fact it was sourced from a prior event that they may not recall (Johnson, 1993).

The second example is false memories. Here, a person may recall an event that in actuality never occurred. For example, when recalling a crime an individual may believe a get away car was white, when in actuality it was blue. False memories often vary in degree and can range from forgetting small details to forgetting large events.

Source confusion is found in different accounts occurring during the same event, based on people speaking on the event. A common example occurs when a police officer says he saw a person with a gun, and witness who may not have seen the gun, says they too saw the gun. In this case, the memories of one individual is influence by another individual. The becomes more powerful if the individual providing the source material is in a position of power.