Fundamental Attribution Error
Believing someone's mistake is due to their deeply flawed character, while blaming your own exact same mistakes on external situations.
THE TRAP TEST
1 / 5Someone cuts you off in traffic. You...
👇 Choose one option:
The Empathy Blindfold
When you do something wrong, you know your own context (you were tired, stressed, late). When a stranger does something wrong, you can't see their context. Your brain fills in the blank by assuming they are just a bad person. It's an empathy failure caused by a lack of data.
The HR Disaster
Managers frequently fire employees who are underperforming, assuming the employee is lazy or incompetent. Often, the employee is dealing with a severe personal crisis, or the company's internal tools are broken. The manager attributes the failure to the person, costing the company a great employee.
How to Defend Yourself
Assume Positive Intent
Unless proven otherwise, assume people are doing the best they can with the resources they have.
The Role Reversal
If you did exactly what they just did, what excuse would you use? Apply that excuse to them.
Separate Action from Identity
People do bad things. That does not make them bad people. Judge the action, not the soul.