Making attributions in the wake of a failure: Democratic soul-searching

Experiencing failures is part of life whether they happen in school, career, sports, relationships and many other areas. Nobody is immune from at least some failures. As such, having psychological skills to cope with this adversity is beneficial for mental health and long-term success.

One set of skills for coping with failures focuses on how we think about them. In particular, the factors which we decide on as the causes of the failures have consequences for our emotional reactions along with our ability to be resilient following such adversity. In the following sections, I will discuss how this cognitive, emotional and behavioural process unfolds by using the Democratic Party’s loss in the 2024 United States presidential election as an illustrative case.

Making attributions for failure: A subjective process

When people experience failure, one way of coping is to engage in the cognitive process of identifying possible causes for the failure. That is, they make attributions for the failure by attributing the failure to a cause. The attributional process is subjective in that there are typically several possible causes contributing to the failure rather than a single definitive cause.

For example, doing poorly on an exam could be caused by not being smart enough, not studying hard enough or properly, being faced with an exceptionally difficult exam, and not feeling well. Losing a game could be the result of not putting in enough effort, not executing properly, being victimized by bad officiating, facing a daunting opponent, and not having enough talent. The Democrats’ loss in the presidential election could be attributed to an ineffective campaign strategy, facing a challenging opponent, not having the right candidate, and racist/sexist voters—to name just a few possible explanations.

As the examples illustrate, there are many possible causes for failures in different domains and that it is usually difficult to pinpoint objectively a definitive cause. As such, it is for the person to decide what they believe to be the cause or causes of the failure. In this subjective process, people construct reality by making attributions for their failures. As you will learn in the following section, the types of attributions people make have significant emotional and behavioural consequences.

Emotional and behavioural consequences of attributions for failure

The factors which we decide on as the causes of our failures have consequences for our emotional reactions along with our ability to be resilient following such adversity. For example, consider the different emotional and behavioural reactions a student experiences to failing an exam based on the attributions they make for their failure.

If the student attributes their failure to not being smart enough, it will have negative emotional and behavioural consequences. Emotionally, they are likely to feel depressed because they conclude that their failure is caused by something lacking in them which they cannot change. Behaviourally, they are unlikely to take steps to improve their performance because the cause of the failure is an unchangeable aspect of themselves.

Now consider the different emotional behavioural consequences were the student to attribute their failure to not having studied properly for the exam. Emotionally, they will feel better than if they had attributed their failure to not being smart enough because they have concluded that the cause of their failure is something they did which they can change rather than a defect in themselves which they cannot change. Behaviourally, they are likely to take steps to improve their performance because the cause of the failure is a behaviour which they can change.

Consequences for performance based on attributions for failure

In addition to emotional and behavioural consequences, the types of attributions a person makes for their failures has consequences for their performance. Research shows that the best performers in various domains make internal unstable attributions for their failures. That is, they focus on causes which are about them (internal) and which can be easily changed (unstable). Internal unstable attributions for failure include not having put in enough effort, not having executed properly and not having used the correct techniques and strategies.

Attributions for failure which are less conducive to success include the internal stable type. This entails focusing on causes which are about them (internal) which cannot be easily changed (stable). Internal stable attributions for failure include lack of ability and talent in endeavours like sports and music and lack of intelligence in school. Performance is affected negatively because the person is focused on factors which cannot be easily changed to facilitate improvement.

Attributions for failure which may be attractive for their emotional consequences but are not helpful because of their behavioural and performance effects are external attributions. When a person makes an external attribution for their failure, they focus on causes of their failure which are apart from themselves. That is, they decide that they failed not because of something lacking in themselves or because of their own behaviour.

External attributions for failure are of two types—external stable and external unstable. External stable attributions refer to external causes which are not easily changed. The most notable external stable attribution is that the task at which the person failed is inherently difficult. For example, a person who failed to be admitted to medical school may attribute their failure to the daunting admission standards. Someone who has not been successful at getting into an intimate relationship may complain that there are few potential partners where they are living.

External unstable attributions refer to external causes which are subject to change, often through random chance. Bad luck is the foremost external unstable attribution for failure. This factor is often cited by athletes who lose a game because of what they believe is poor officiating and by lawyers who lose court cases because of having drawn a panel of jurors unfavourable to their clients’ cases.

External attributions for failure—whether they be stable as in task difficulty or unstable as in bad luck—are appealing from an emotional standpoint because the person focuses on factors other than themselves as the causes. “Don’t blame me for the loss—I would have won if not for the referee’s terrible calls” or “It’s just too hard to become a doctor” epitomize the emotional relief a person experiences from shifting the ‘blame’ away from themselves.

Unfortunately, the emotional benefits of making external attributions for failure come at the price of negative behavioural and performance consequences. That is, the fact that the cause of one’s failure is external means they cannot address the factors to improve their performance.

Therefore, internal unstable attributions for failure are preferred from a performance standpoint. You may experience difficult emotions—especially guilt—by concluding that your behaviours caused your failure. However, your mood will improve with the knowledge that you can readily address those behaviours to succeed going forward.

On which types of attributions for failure should Democrats focus?

As I mentioned, there are a myriad of possible factors to which Democrats can attribute their failure in the 2024 United States presidential election. I have heard many such explanations for their loss discussed on podcasts which focus on American politics.

One thing is clear from listening to the multitude of explanations, many of them competing explanations, offered by podcast hosts along with their guests and listeners: Nobody can say with certainty what was the definitive cause or causes of this electoral setback.

Having said that, it can be stated with certainty that the types of attributions for failure on which Democratic strategists, candidates and supporters focus have enormous emotional, behavioural and performance consequences. Fortunately for the party, it appears that the focus of most of their strategists, candidates and supporters is on internal unstable attributions for the defeat. Owning their role in the negative outcome may be temporarily difficult emotionally. But doing so gives them the best chance to address factors which can lead them to get a better result in subsequent elections.

May you make attributions for your failures which lead to future successes,

-Dr. Pat

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