Why does the fundamental attribution error occur?
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The fundamental attribution error, also called the correspondence bias, occurs when we mistakenly attribute a person’s actions to their personality, not their environment (Myers & Twenge, 2019; Levy, 2010). In other words, we overlook the situation around them, which likely has a significant impact on their actions, and instead blame their behavior on who they are as a person. You might fall victim to this bias any time that you criticize or condemn the actions of strangers when you might act the same way under the same circumstances. For example, have you ever become angry at a slow driver on the road ahead of you? You may have thought they were a terrible driver or even an inconsiderate, spiteful person. However, surely there have been times when you have been driving slowly for good reasons—perhaps the weather was bad, or you were a little lost in a new area, or you were having car problems. When you are driving slowly, it is perfectly reasonable because of your circumstances, but when someone else is driving slowly, it’s because of who they are as a person. Of course, to think this is to fall victim to the fundamental attribution error. Show The fundamental attribution error is involved in far more than just road rage. This bias can creep into interpersonal relations (Myers & Twenge, 2019) and even interfere with important business decisions like hiring or firing an employee (Healy, 2017). Like other cognitive biases, this error can distort the way we see the world and have adverse effects on our psychological well-being, making it all the more important to learn how to recognize and avoid this ubiquitous bias. To learn more about catching cognitive biases, download LIFE Intelligence. LIFE Intelligence is a decision-making app available on iOS and Android that is designed to optimize functioning in the areas of self, career, and relationships. Specifically, LIFE includes a 9 Mission program designed to teach you how to manage stress and anxiety, correct cognitive distortions, and improve relationships with others. Avoiding cognitive biases is the topic of Mission 5.1, available to download now. Fundamental Attribution Error: Why It HappensTukachinsky (2020) recently studied the fundamental attribution error in peoples’ perceptions of actors playing a role. Participants were assigned to watch one of two films. One film portrayed the lead actress in a positive light, while the other portrayed her as a villain. Both groups of participants then watched a public service announcement in which the actress was supporting a charitable children’s hospital. Tukachinsky found that the participants who had seen the actress represented as a villain found her less trustworthy and had more negative thoughts about the actress in the public service announcement. Of course, the actress was only playing a scripted role in the films, and so one could not reasonably determine anything about her personality in reality. Nonetheless, participants fell into the fundamental attribution error by conflating the actress’ circumstances (i.e., acting in a certain role) with her personality characteristics. In general, the fundamental attribution error can arise in a few specific ways that may relate to its causes (Gilbert & Malone, 1995):
 One of the major reasons why we may make the fundamental error is because we view others differently than we view ourselves (Myers & Twenge, 2019). From our perspective, the environment around us is in sharp focus, and we respond according to the situation we are in. For example, if you are taking a long time to order a cup of coffee and a line is forming behind you, you would not stop to think “I am a slow and indecisive person, so I should take my time”; you think “They have so many new options and I’m not sure which I want.” In other words, your focus is on the environment, not on yourself. Conversely, when we view others, the impact of the environment tends to shrink and we focus on who they are as a cause for their behavior. Because we tend to place our attention on someone else’s behavior, all we see is that person. In this way, when we are observers, we overemphasize the internal characteristics of others, yet when we ourselves are the actors, we overemphasize the environment; this has been called the actor-observer bias, and it explains why we make this attribution error when observing the actions of others but not our own (Levy, 2010; Cherry, 2020). To some degree, this is natural—after all, we know more about ourselves and our own situation, so it is easier for us to see how the environment is affecting our behavior than it is for us to see how the environment is affecting the behavior of others. Indeed, we are less likely to use the actor-observer bias with people we know well, most likely because we know more about them and we can see things from their perspective more easily (Cherry, 2020). Interestingly, the fundamental attribution error varies between cultures. Cultures that are more collectivistic (such as those in the Middle East or Asia) tend to put more focus on the environment and the situation that a person is in (Krull et al., 1999), and so they may be less susceptible to the fundamental attribution error (Myers & Twenge, 2019). On the other hand, cultures that are more individualistic (like the majority cultures in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe) tend to emphasize the idea that people cause and have control over events, a belief that can feed into cognitive biases. In this way, cultural background can also be tied to one’s use of the fundamental attribution error. Fundamental Attribution Error: How to Avoid ItIn many cases, simply taking more time to think about a person’s behavior can help us to better explain it; in fact, those with greater reasoning skills are less likely to use the fundamental attribution error (Stalder, 2000). One of the ways we can apply logic to the situation is by asking ourselves about the consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus of a person’s behavior (Myers & Twenge, 2019). Before you make harsh judgments about someone’s behavior, ask yourself:
For example, if you see a coworker or an employee come into work late, think about their behavior before condemning their tardiness. Are they normally late? Is there something different about today that made them late, like an earlier shift? Would others be late under the same circumstances? By asking these questions, you may find that they are not late because they are disorganized or flaky, but because of the circumstances they faced on that day. Asking questions like these can help you to see the situation from another perspective, a practice which has been found to reduce the incidence of the fundamental attribution error (Hooper et al., 2015). In one study, participants completed simple exercises in perspective taking, answering questions like “I have a red brick and you have a green brick. If I was you and you were me, what would you have?” (Hooper et al., 2015, p. 70). Even from practicing these quick and relatively straightforward exercises, participants were less likely to use the fundamental attribution error. This implies that you do not have to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes—merely stopping for a few minutes to consider their perspective and their position can help you toward a better and more reasonable understanding of their actions. One of the forces operating within perspective taking that makes it so effective may be mindfulness. Mindfulness is a nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. When you are mindful, you take in your surroundings without evaluating them, often focusing on your breath, bodily sensations, or your thoughts and feelings. Indeed, a brief mindfulness training exercise has been shown to reduce incidence of the fundamental attribution error (Hopthrow et al., 2017). Much like perspective taking, being mindful does not necessarily require great or lengthy practice. In fact, Hopthrow et al. (2017) reduced the fundamental attribution error in five minutes through the “raisin task.” In this exercise, participants were told to eat two raisins while focusing fully on their actions, thoughts, and sensations. They examined the raisins before eating them, taking in their color, texture, and smell. While eating them, they gave their attention to everything they perceived in the raisins’ taste and texture. By being aware of something as simple as eating raisins, they were therefore able to improve their understanding of other people’s circumstances. If you would like to use this technique in day-to-day situations, there is no need to carry raisins with you. Taking some time to be more aware of the situation—including your thoughts, actions, sensations, and the thoughts and behavior of others—can be of great help. The fundamental attribution error can have a number of negative consequences in both interpersonal relationships and societal issues. This bias can cause you to misinterpret or misunderstand the actions of others, which can heighten disagreements, conflict, and strife. However, there are a number of measures you can take against this attribution error; specifically, logically thinking it through, taking others’ perspectives, and practicing mindfulness have all been found to reduce the fundamental attribution error, and they can all be done in just a few minutes. With these tools, you will be better prepared to catch and correct this harmful cognitive bias. LIFE Intelligence is one app for every aspect of your LIFE. Our 9-topic self-development journey provides science-backed content, exercises, and reflections to help you better understand and manage yourself and others. Our mood tracker and emotional management toolkit helps you deal with difficult situations on the fly. These combined help you comprehensively manage stress and anxiety, improve work productivity and career fulfillment, and build lasting relationships. References Cherry, K. (2020). Attribution and social psychology. VeryWellMind.com. https://www.verywellmind.com/attribution-social-psychology-2795898 Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995). The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin, 117(1), 21-38. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7870861/ Healy, P. (2017). The fundamental attribution error: What it is & how to avoid it. hbs.edu. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/the-fundamental-attribution-error Hooper, N., Erdogan, A., Keen, G., Lawton, K., & McHugh, L. (2015). Perspective taking reduces the fundamental attribution error. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 4(2), 69-72. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273509722_Perspective_taking_reduces_the_fundamental_attribution_error Hopthrow, T., Hooper, N., Mahmood, L., Meier, B. P., & Weger, U. (2017). Mindfulness reduces the correspondence bias. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006), 70(3), 351-360. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/17470218.2016.1149498 Krull, D. S., Loy, M. H., Lin, J., Wang, C., Chen, S., & Zhao, X. (1999). The fundamental fundamental attribution error: Correspondence bias in individualist and collectivist cultures. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(10), 1208-1219. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167299258003 Levy, D. A. (2010). Tools of critical thinking (2nd ed.). Waveland Press, Inc. Myers, D., & Twenge, J. (2019). Social psychology (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. Stalder, D. R. (2000). Does logic moderate the fundamental attribution error? Psychological Reports, 86(3 Pt 1), 879-882. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10876338/ Tukachinsky, R. (2020). Playing a bad character but endorsing a good cause: Actor-character fundamental attribution error and persuasion. Communication Reports (Pullman, Wash.), 33(1), 1-13. https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/comm_articles/69/ Why might the fundamental attribution error occur?Why do we make fundamental attribution error? We tend to make a fundamental attribution error because we try and justify the actions of others. When someone does something bad, we feel like we have to assign a reason for why it occurred.
Why does the fundamental attribution error occur quizlet?Why do people make the fundamental attribution error? People make the fundamental attribution error because they pay too much attention to the disposition or personality of the person in the situation and don't pay enough attention to the situation itself.
What's an example of fundamental attribution error?This is the quintessential fundamental attribution error. When we meet a poor person, we assume they're lazy rather than attributing it to situational factors in their lives. Driving by a food kitchen for the homeless can give us a view of another world.
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