Fundamental+Attribution+Error

Maddie Weil

The theory of fundamental attribution error was developed by Lee D. Ross, a professor of psychology at Stanford University since 1969. Professor Ross' research focuses on biases in human inference, judgment, and decision making.

Fundamental Attribution Error describes the tendency for an observer to attribute other people’s behavior to internal or dispositional factors and to disregard situational causes. The personality, abilities, and traits of the person involved are all classified as internal while the properties of the situation, (i.e. environmental constraints, other people’s actions) are external. It is therefore, the assumption that, if somebody behaves in an undesirable way, it happened solely because of the person, not the situation they are in. According to research, humans actively engage in attribution methods because they have an innate desire to understand, predict, and control what’s going on around them.

For example: "Alice sees Bob trip over a rock and Fall. Alice may consider Bob to be clumsy or careless (dispositional). Alice trips over the same rock herself, but instead blames it on the placement of the rock (situational)." (psychwiki)

Say for example, a good friend comes by in the hallway and instead of their usual happy greeting they give a unfriendly "hey" and walk away from you. Many would react to the situation by thinking that the friend is being a "jerk." They are making a fundamental attribution error, because hey are underestimating the situation and overestimating the person's disposition. We do not tend to think that perhaps this person has a bad day or was feeling down, even though it would have caused them to behave differently than their normal friendly self Instead we assume that the behavior is part of them as a person and not because of how they were feeling at the moment.

This video demonstrates the concept of fundamental attribution error. media type="custom" key="13385218"

Remember the Titans

How might Julius make a fundamental attribution error?

Because Gary's girlfriend walks away from his extended hand in disgust, Julius assumes that she is prejudiced and rude, rather than considering the idea that she walked away for another reason, for example, she had to go somewhere.

media type="youtube" key="4dzzy7eRtvU?rel=0" height="315" width="560"

Other references: http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/fundamental_attribution_error.htm http://allpsych.com/psychology101/attribution_attraction.html

Sources:

http://lee.ross.socialpsychology.org/ http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/The_Fundamental_Attribution_Error