fundamental attribution error

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the tendency to overestimate the role of dispositional — internal, personal — factors and underestimate the role of situational — external, contextual — factors in explaining other people's behaviour; the term was coined by Lee Ross in 1977 and is considered one of the most robust and important findings in social psychology; when we observe someone behaving in a particular way — aggressively, carelessly, generously — we tend to attribute their behaviour to who they are as a person rather than to the circumstances they are in, even when those circumstances powerfully constrain or elicit the behaviour; the error is demonstrated by the tendency of observers to attribute an essay arguing a position to the writer's genuine beliefs even when told the writer was assigned the position; the FAE has asymmetric applications — people apply it to others but tend to use situational explanations for their own behaviour, a pattern called the actor-observer asymmetry; it has implications for interpersonal judgement, legal proceedings, and the design of social interventions, suggesting that changing situations is often more effective than targeting individual dispositions