Blaming The Person
Written by Studio AM.
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When a stranger cuts in front of you in traffic, you may think the driver is selfish before asking whether a lane is closing. The fundamental attribution error is a tendency to give too much weight to personal character and too little to circumstances when judging someone else's behavior.
Visibility and information can contribute. The other driver is vivid, easy to notice, while the situation that prompted the move may be less visible. You may know only this one action. By contrast, knowing a person's behavior across many settings gives you more evidence about whether an action is typical.
Comparisons between our explanations of ourselves and others are a related question. An asymmetry in those explanations is often called an actor-observer difference. It is not the same definition as the fundamental attribution error, and research does not support one universal self-versus-other pattern. The kind of behavior and the information available matter.
A careful judgment considers both the action and its setting. Asking about a closing lane does not make an unsafe maneuver safe, but it may change the explanation for it. The useful habit is to check what is known about the circumstances before treating one observed action as a complete account of someone's character.
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Questions
Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you answer.
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Question 1 of 4
Which statement best expresses the main idea?
The answer is B: Judgments can overemphasize another person's character when the surrounding circumstances receive too little attention.
The passage defines the fundamental attribution error, explains possible contributors, and distinguishes a related self-other comparison.
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Question 2 of 4
Which two factors can contribute to the error according to the passage?
The answer is C: Visibility and information.
The second paragraph names visibility and information as possible contributors.
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Question 3 of 4
Why is behavior across several settings useful when judging one action?
The answer is C: It supplies evidence about whether that action is typical of the person.
The second paragraph contrasts one observed act with a record across many settings.
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Question 4 of 4
What does “vivid” mean here?
The answer is D: easy to notice and strongly present
The passage immediately explains vivid as easy to notice, in contrast to less visible circumstances.
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