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Published 1988 | public
Journal Article

Illusory Correlations in Perceptions and Predictions of Organizational Traits

Abstract

People often believe in 'illusory' correlations between variables that are similar, but not actually correlated. This study suggests that judgements of organizational traits reflect illusory correlations, because subject' perceptions of correlations between traits, and the predictions of Hage's (1965) 'axiomatic' theory, were more highly correlated with independent similarity ratings than with actual correlations between traits. Some methodological reasons why organizational-trait theories might unwittingly produce illusory correlation predictions are discussed, along with possible remedies.

Additional Information

© 1988 Wiley-Blackwell. Received 23 July 1987; Revised 11 February 1988. Article first published online: 17 Aug. 2006. Financial support from the Paget Research Chair at Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks to participants in the Wharton School Management Colloquium, several anonymous journal referees. Howard Aldrich, Jennifer Isaacs, Dan Levinthal, George Loewenstein, Harbir Singh, Ari Vepsalainen, and Martin Weber.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023