Blog Post #10: The Fundamental Attribution Error: The Truth Behind Why We Judge People

You might not realize it, but if you think about it, whenever you make a mistake, you tend to give excuses for yourself and justify that mistake based on situational factors. However, when others make a mistake, you tend to judge them and believe it’s their fault. This is an inherent bias that all humans have: the fundamental attribution error.

This bias states that “[P]eople have a cognitive bias to assume that a person’s actions depend on what ‘kind’ of person that person is rather than on the social and environmental forces that influence the person.” For example, if someone cuts in front of you on the road while driving, you might be thinking how annoying that person is, yet you don’t know what other circumstances they might be going through. They might be rushing someone to the airport, or running late to a job interview. Because we don’t know about other people’s situational factors, we tend to blame their character for their mistakes and make a negative judgement of them. On the flip side, if we were cutting in front of someone, we would make the justification to ourselves that we “had” to do it because of outside factors that we had to take into consideration, therefore not blaming ourselves for the action we are choosing.

This fundamental attribution error causes us to be much more judgemental of others and to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. Why do we do this? According to this article, when we are evaluating our own mistakes, “[W]e’re fully aware of the factors outside our control, so we understand the context of why we tripped up. On the flip side, attributing our successes to our awesomeness boosts our confidence…and improves our reputation among the people around us.”

Some ways that we can combat this bias is to understand the role of chance, and practice being grateful for how our present circumstances are the result of many happy coincidences. Noticing that there are so many things outside one’s control is important. Furthermore, putting ourselves in other people’s shoes is also good practice; understanding that there might be other factors driving people's actions may alter our perspective of their actions. 

The fundamental attribution error is so important because the more we give into this bias, the more judgemental we are of others, and the more we find ourselves thinking about what others think about us. We judge people so often that we start to believe that everyone else is also judging us. This is a dangerous path to go down because it lowers our self-esteem. If we can judge others less, the better we will feel about ourselves.

So, the next time you find yourself frustrated when someone slips up, notice that feeling and acknowledge you don’t know what the other person is going through. Let that judgement pass, and over time you might realize just how much happier you’ve become because of your less-judgmental view.