Fundamental attribution error
Concept · Psychology, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to explain other people's behaviour by their character while explaining the same behaviour in oneself by the situation. Someone who cuts you off in traffic is reckless; when you do it, you were late for something. The name was given by Lee Ross in 1977, building on earlier work by Edward Jones and Victor Harris showing that observers still inferred a speaker's real opinion from an essay even when told the speaker had been assigned which side to argue. The effect is weaker outside the individualist Western samples where it was first measured, so it is better described as a strong tendency than as a universal law.
Why it matters
It is the most common single mistake in everyday reasoning about other people, and noticing it changes how you read behaviour you disapprove of.
Part of
Fundamental attribution error in the glossary
Sources
- Fundamental attribution error Wikipedia
- Social psychology Wikipedia
