What is Attributional ambiguity?
Attributional ambiguity is the uncertainty a person from a stigmatized group experiences about whether feedback or treatment is based on their actual performance or on their group membership. It creates a paradox where both positive and negative feedback become difficult to trust.
How it works
When a Black employee receives a glowing performance review, they may wonder: ‘Was this genuine or did my manager inflate the rating to avoid appearing biased?’ Similarly, negative feedback triggers the question: ‘Was this fair or driven by prejudice?’ Crocker and Major (1989) showed that this ambiguity undermines the informational value of feedback for stigmatized group members, reducing its ability to guide improvement.
Applied example
A female engineer who is told her code is excellent cannot be sure whether the praise reflects her work or her male colleague’s desire to be seen as supportive of women in tech. This ambiguity makes it harder for her to calibrate her actual skill level.
Why it matters
Attributional ambiguity reveals a hidden cost of stigma: even positive outcomes become psychologically complicated, making it difficult for members of stigmatized groups to build accurate self-assessment from social feedback.
