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Heuristics
How to Avoid the Fundamental Attribution Error
This example might help you avoid snap judgments about someone's behavior.
Posted September 10, 2021 Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
The student giving the short presentation was a non-traditional student who had returned to college to complete her degree, after a detour of marriage and raising a couple of kids.
It was her turn to present a five-minute analysis of a personal experience that fit a psychological principle.
She had so far proven herself an excellent student, having written a fine, perceptive first paper.
I expected a fine, perceptive presentation, too. But I did not expect one of the best I had ever heard. This is what I remember her telling us:
She began by describing a recent incident that had happened while teaching her teenage daughter how to drive.
She had decided to teach her daughter using a car with a stick shift. Why was this, she asked the class? Why make the task of learning to drive more difficult? She further added that her daughter was extremely anxious about driving. So, again, why the stick shift?
Because, ultimately, this would be a more effective way of helping her daughter overcome her fears, suggested a fellow student.
Exactly.
Early on in their practice drives, she and her daughter found themselves stalled at an intersection. Perhaps there was a slight incline that made timing the release of the clutch and brake especially tricky.
Almost immediately, the male driver of the car behind them started honking. This made her daughter panic, and in her effort to get the car started and moving forward, she stalled again.
By now, the driver was out of his car and striding toward their car. The man’s face was twisted with anger. He was soon at her daughter’s window.
Her mother took charge.
She told her daughter to open the window, and as soon as it was open, she quickly apologized to the man and let him know that her daughter was “learning how to drive.”
This seemed to be all the man needed to halt his irritation in its tracks, even reverse it. His face softened. Perhaps he became apologetic, too.
The presentation seemed close to over. All that was left was to note that the man had committed the so-called “fundamental attribution error.”
This is the tendency, as the student reminded the class, to overattribute the cause of another person’s behavior (especially a negative behavior) to something dispositional or personality-related (an incompetent driver) and overlook or ignore possible situational causes beyond the person’s control (learning how to drive).
Psychological research is inconclusive about how robust this tendency is (the term "fundamental" may be misplaced), but my sense is that it often takes an experienced, wise person to nip this habit in the bud, and to at least search for situational factors before concluding a dispositional cause.
Nice example, well told, I think we all thought. And I sensed that everyone thought it was time to give a polite clap all around.
But wait: The student continued the story. She informed us that there was one other bit of information about which the man was unaware. And, if he had known this information, there was probably zero chance that he would have so quickly blamed her daughter for her faulty driving.
This got our renewed attention. What could it be?
It turned out that something terrible had happened when her daughter was a little girl.
Her father had died in a car accident.
No wonder she was anxious about driving and needed a special strategy to help her overcome her fears.
Our class size was around 60 students scattered in a large room, and a kind of silent whoosh that went through the room. Some students lifted their hands to their lips. No one had expected this postscript.
I felt a surge of goosebumps.
I suspect that everyone in the room will forever remember this story — and sometimes remember to stop, think, and search before concluding a dispositional cause for someone’s behavior “without cause.”
A wise person avoids snap judgments and looks for the whole picture.
And, by the way, did you wonder about what situational factors may have provided a credible situational explanation for the “nasty” man’s behavior?
I didn't.
References
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.
