Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2013 The ffecE t of Trait Anxiety on the Fundamental Attribution Error Eliot Tear Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Psychiatry and Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Tear, Eliot, "The Effect of Trait Anxiety on the Fundamental Attribution Error" (2013). Honors Theses. 744. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/744 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Running Head: TRAIT ANXIETY AND THE FAE The Effect of Trait Anxiety on the Fundamental Attribution Error By Eliot Tear * * * * * * * * * Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of Psychology UNION COLLEGE June, 2013 Trait Anxiety and the FAE 2 Abstract Previous research has been conducted that suggests that those who have trait anxiety have lower working memory capacity. Lower working memory capacity has also been shown to increase the likelihood that one commits cognitive heuristics. In the current research, we examined the relationship between one’s level of trait anxiety and their chances of committing the fundamental attribution error (FAE). In the experiment participants were randomly selected into one of four different conditions. Then participants completed the Spielberger trait anxiety scale which was used to separate participants into low and high trait anxiety groups. In each condition participants read an essay about a course policy change and answered questions about the essay and the author to test whether or not they committed the FAE.