Why do we underestimate the influence of the situation on people’s behavior?

The 

Fundamental Attribution Error

, explained.
Bias

What is the fundamental attribution error?

The fundamental attribution error (FAE) describes how, when making judgments about people’s behavior, we often overemphasize dispositional factors and downplay situational ones.5 In other words, we believe that people’s personality traits have more influence on their actions, compared to the other factors outside of their control.

A cartoon illustration shows a person apologizing for being late due to traffic, while two others angrily blame them as flawed, highlighting the "Fundamental Attribution Error."

Where this bias occurs

Let’s say you’re driving to work one day, and somebody cuts you off. Furious, you decide that the other driver is a selfish person, who doesn’t care about other people’s safety. Unbeknownst to you, the other driver rarely cuts people off, and normally they are very careful about safety—but right now, they’re on the way to a hospital for a family emergency, so they’re acting differently than they usually would.

The fundamental attribution error causes us to make fast, and often incorrect, assumptions about others without taking into account that there may be another reason for the observed behavior. It often occurs in situations where we know little information as we attribute people’s behavior to situational or dispositional factors.

Related Biases

Sources

  1. Malle, B. F. (2006). The actor-observer asymmetry in attribution: A (surprising) meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(6), 895-919. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.6.895
  2. Ross, L. (1977). "The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process". In Berkowitz, L. (ed.). Advances in experimental social psychology. 10. New York: Academic Press. pp. 173–220. ISBN 978-0-12-015210-0.
  3. Gawronski, B. (2004). Theory-based bias correction in dispositional inference: The fundamental attribution error is dead, long live the correspondence bias. European Review of Social Psychology, 15(1), 183-217. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463280440000026
  4. Gawronski, B. (2007). Correspondence bias. In R. F. Baumeister, & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social psychology (pp. 194-195). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [pdf]
  5. Gawronski, B. (2007). Fundamental attribution error. In R. F. Baumeister, & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social psychology (pp. 367-369). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [pdf]
  6. Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995). The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin, 117(1), 21-38. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.1.21
  7. Jones, E. E., & Harris, V. A. (1967). The attribution of attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 3(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(67)90034-0
  8. Gilbert, D. T., Pelham, B. W., & Krull, D. S. (1988). On cognitive busyness: When person perceivers meet persons perceived. Journal of personality and social psychology, 54(5), 733.
  9. Forgas, J. P. (1998). On being happy and mistaken: Mood effects on the fundamental attribution error. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(2), 318-331. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.2.318
  10. Ethics Unwrapped. (2019, April 11). Fundamental attribution error. https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/fundamental-attribution-error
  11. Healy, P. (2017, June 8). The fundamental attribution error: What it is & how to avoid it. Harvard Business School - Business Insights Blog. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/the-fundamental-attribution-error
  12. Landry, L. (2019, October 23). Emotional intelligence skills: What they are & how to develop them. Harvard Business School - Business Insights Blog. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emotional-intelligence-skills
  13. Tam, K., Au, A., & Leung, A. K. (2008). Attributionally more complex people show less punitiveness and racism. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(4), 1074-1081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.11.002
  14. Siegel, J. (2023, May 16). The art of the prompt: How to get the best out of Generative AI. Microsoft. https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/ai/the-art-of-the-prompt-how-to-get-the-best-out-of-generative-ai/

About the Authors

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Dan Pilat

Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.

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Dr. Sekoul Krastev

Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.

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