What Is the Fundamental Attribution Error?

The fundamental attribution error is a cognitive bias that leads people to underestimate the impact of situational factors on others’ behavior and overestimate the influence of personal, dispositional factors. In other words, it causes us to assume that other people’s actions are less affected by their environment than they really are, and that their personality plays a bigger role than it actually does.

For example, the fundamental attribution error might make someone think that a stranger who looks angry must be an angry person in general, even if that person was only temporarily upset by something like someone else’s rudeness.

This bias can significantly affect how we judge others, so it’s important to understand it. In this article, you’ll learn more about the fundamental attribution error and how to account for it in your thinking.

Examples of the Fundamental Attribution Error

One of the most notable examples comes from the first study on this phenomenon, published in 1967 by Edward Jones and Victor Harris at Duke University. In their experiment, participants read what they believed were essays written by students for a political science exam on the controversial topic of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Some participants read pro-Castro essays, others read anti-Castro essays, and all were asked to judge the true attitude of the essay’s author.

The study found that participants who read pro-Castro essays were much more likely to believe the student was pro-Castro, even when told the student had no choice in the matter. This demonstrated the fundamental attribution error: people attributed the essay’s stance to the writer’s personal beliefs, ignoring the situational constraint.

Other examples include:

• TV Shows: Viewers often assume that actors’ on-screen behavior reflects their real personality, rather than the script. This persists even when the same actor plays very different roles.
• Students and Teachers: Students may overestimate internal reasons for a teacher’s anger, assuming the teacher is simply an angry person, rather than considering situational triggers like misbehavior or provocation.

Note: The term “fundamental attribution error” was introduced by Stanford professor Lee Ross in 1977 in his article “The Intuitive Psychologist and His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process.” The term is often abbreviated as “FAE.”

Why Do People Make the Fundamental Attribution Error?

The main reason is that it acts as a mental shortcut, or heuristic, allowing people to make quick judgments. It’s easier and faster to assume someone’s behavior is due to their stable internal traits than to consider all the situational factors that might be influencing them.

This bias is more likely when people lack the cognitive resources or motivation to fully consider situational influences. Additionally, sometimes it’s less costly to mistakenly assume someone’s actions are due to their disposition than to assume the opposite.

Neuroscientific research suggests that when people try to understand others’ intentions, they engage in mentalizing—spontaneously processing the other person’s mental state. Various factors, such as nationality, mood, or how the behavior is perceived (positively or negatively), can affect the likelihood and degree of the fundamental attribution error.

In summary, people make the fundamental attribution error mainly because it’s a cognitive shortcut that makes judgment easier and faster. Other factors, such as moral reasoning or the tendency to overestimate personality influences, can also play a role.

How to Avoid the Fundamental Attribution Error

There are several ways to reduce the likelihood of making this error:

• Awareness: Simply knowing about the fundamental attribution error can help you avoid it.
• Reflect on Situations: When you notice yourself making a quick judgment, think about similar situations where situational factors clearly influenced behavior. Ask yourself if you’ve ever acted the same way under similar circumstances, and why.
• Consider Multiple Explanations: Try to come up with several possible reasons, including situational ones, for someone’s behavior.
• Explain Your Reasoning: Actively explaining why you judge someone a certain way can make you more responsible for your reasoning and help you spot cognitive shortcuts.
• Slow Down: Use general debiasing techniques, such as slowing down your thought process and considering the other person’s perspective.

In short, to avoid the fundamental attribution error, keep this bias in mind when judging others, consider relevant past situations, generate multiple explanations, and explain your reasoning. You can also use general debiasing methods, like slowing down your thinking. When making judgments, consider Kant’s categorical imperative to avoid disappointment from others’ reactions.

Tip: Hanlon’s Razor is a useful principle: don’t assume malice when a plausible alternative explanation exists.

How to Respond to the Fundamental Attribution Error in Others

If you notice someone else making the fundamental attribution error, you can try to challenge their thinking using similar methods you’d use for yourself. For example, encourage them to think about times when they acted like the person they’re judging due to situational factors, or ask them to consider external reasons for the behavior in question.

These methods work best when the person is unintentionally making the error. Sometimes, however, people intentionally use flawed reasoning to influence others. In such cases, it’s often best to point out the logical problems in their argument, such as by explaining that actions aren’t always determined by personality and providing supporting examples. If there’s an audience, focus on correcting the bias among the audience members as well.

Cautions About the Fundamental Attribution Error

As with many psychological phenomena, there are important caveats to keep in mind. Some research questions how often people actually make the fundamental attribution error and why. It’s also a complex phenomenon influenced by many factors, so expect significant variation in how people display it.

Related Concepts

Several psychological phenomena are closely related to the fundamental attribution error:

• Correspondence Bias: The tendency to draw conclusions about a person’s character based on behavior that could be explained by situational factors. Sometimes used interchangeably with the fundamental attribution error, but they are distinct concepts.
• Actor-Observer Asymmetry: The tendency to attribute one’s own behavior to situational causes, but others’ behavior to dispositional factors.
• Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to attribute successes and positive behavior to one’s own disposition, and failures or negative behavior to situational factors. This bias is sometimes more common in people with certain personality traits.
• Ultimate Attribution Error: The tendency to attribute positive actions of out-group members to situational factors and negative actions to dispositional factors, while doing the opposite for in-group members.
• Just-World Phenomenon: The belief that people always get what they deserve, leading to the assumption that good actions are rewarded and bad actions are punished. For example, assuming someone who suffers a tragedy must have done something to deserve it.

Three additional concepts often discussed in this context are:

• Situationism: Emphasizes situational factors in explaining human behavior.
• Dispositionalism: Emphasizes dispositional (personality) factors in explaining behavior.
• Interactionism: Suggests that both situational and dispositional factors play important roles in shaping behavior. Most researchers support interactionism.

Summary and Conclusions

The fundamental attribution error is a cognitive bias that leads people to underestimate the impact of situational factors and overestimate the influence of personality on others’ behavior. For example, it might cause someone to assume a stranger who looks angry is an angry person, even if the anger was caused by a temporary situation.

The main reason people make this error is that it’s easier and faster to assume behavior is due to personality than to consider all possible situational influences. To avoid the fundamental attribution error, keep this bias in mind, consider past situations, generate multiple explanations, and explain your reasoning. General debiasing techniques, like slowing down your thinking, can also help.

To help others avoid this error, challenge their thinking using similar methods, or, if they’re intentionally using flawed reasoning, focus on explaining the logical problems in their arguments.