What are attribution styles?

Attribution styles are ways to say who did what when people work together on a project.

Imagine you and your friend both helped build a tower out of blocks. You might want to tell everyone how much each of you contributed, that’s like using an attribution style.

When you're the main builder

If you did most of the work, you might say “I built the tower with help from my friend.” This is like a main contributor attribution style. It shows who was in charge but still gives credit to others.

When everyone helped equally

If you and your friend both stacked blocks and balanced them just right, you might say “We built the tower together.” That's like a shared or equal contribution attribution style. It shows that everyone worked hard and it took a team effort.

Sometimes people use different styles to match how they think about teamwork, it’s all about being fair and clear!

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Examples

  1. A child says, 'I got this idea from my teacher.'
  2. A friend says, 'This song was written by me and my band.'
  3. A student writes, 'This essay is based on my research.'

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Categories: Psychology · attribution· styles· credit