Abstract

The lay dispositionism is a tendency which attributes others' behavior not to the situation but to their personal disposition. In this article, I argue that one's social-egocentrism is a source of the lay dispositionism. The social-egocentrism is an absolute recognition of others' impression in a certain role relationship as their real personality. People do not realize that one's impression of others are socially constructed in the role relationships they are involved. In this sense, one's impression is contextualized in the given role relationship. This social-egocentrism prevails when a person identifies his or her self identity with the social roles he or she performs. In this context, the person in Question perceives his or her own role behavior and that of others as an expression of personal will. As a result, a lay dispositionism which attributes the cause of one's role-based behavior to his or her personal disposition emerges. In this article, I present relevant empirical data supporting this idea, and discuss its implication with regard to the existing theories of person-perception.