In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or overattribution effect and frequently confused with the actor-observer bias) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional, or personality-based, explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior. In other words, people tend to have a default assumption that what a person does is based more on what "kind" of person he or she is, rather than the social and environmental forces at work on that person. This default assumption leads to people sometimes making erroneous explanations for behavior. This general bias to over-emphasizing dispositional explanations for behavior at the expense of situational explanations is much less likely to occur when people evaluate their own behavior. Attribution theory is a field of social psychology, which was born out of the theoritical models of Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward E. Jones, and Lee Ross. ... In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error (sometimes referred to as the actor-observer bias) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional, or personality-based, explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior. ... Behavior or behaviour (see spelling differences) refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. ...

The term was coined by Lee Ross some years after the now-classic experiment by Edward E. Jones and Victor Harris. Ross argued in a popular paper that the fundamental attribution error forms the conceptual bedrock for the field of social psychology. Lee D. Ross is a professor of social psychology at Stanford University, who has studied attribution theory, attributional biases, decision making and conflict resolution. ... See also: statistician Edward Jones Edward E. Jones (1927-1993) was an influential social psychologist who worked at Duke University for most of his career, then moving to Princeton University in 1977. ... Social psychology is often conceived to be the study of how individuals perceive, influence, and relate to others. ...

More recently some psychologists including Daniel Gilbert have begun using the term "correspondence bias" for the fundamental attribution error and the two terms are often used synonymously. Jones wrote that he found Ross's term "overly provocative and somewhat misleading" (and also joked "Furthermore, I'm angry that I didn't think of it first"). Daniel Gilbert is the author of Stumbling on Happiness and a Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. ...

Classic demonstration study: Jones and Harris (1967)

Based on an earlier theory developed by Edward E. Jones and Keith Davis, Jones and Victor Harris hypothesized that when people saw others behave according to free will, they would attribute the behavior to disposition. When they could tell that others behaved according to the circumstances of chance, however, observers would attribute the behavior to the situation. Keith Davis (born December 30, 1978 in Dallas, Texas) is an American football safety for the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL. He was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Sam Houston State University. ... Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. ...

Subjects listened to pro- and anti-Fidel Castro speeches. Subjects were asked to rate the pro-Castro attitudes of both. When the subjects believed that the speech makers freely chose which position to take (for or against Castro), they naturally rated the people who gave the pro-Castro speeches as having a more positive attitude toward Castro. However, contradicting Jones and Harris' hypothesis, when the subjects were specifically told that the speech makers gave either a pro- or an anti-Castro speech solely as the result of a coin that was tossed up in the air and subsequently flipped over onto another side at random, the subjects still rated the people who gave the pro-Castro speeches as having, on average, a more positive attitude towards Castro than those giving anti-Castro speeches. Thus, even when subjects were aware that the speeches made were solely because of the flip of a coin, they committed the fundamental attribution error when it came to judging the motivation behind pro or anti-Castro attitudes of the speech makers. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) held the title of Prime Minister [1] of Cuba from 1959, after commanding the attack that overthrew Fulgencio Batista, until 1976, when he became President of Cuba. ... In ordinary language, the word random is used to express apparent lack of purpose or cause. ...

Everyday example

You are walking up to a cashier at the grocery store to check out when a man with two children cuts directly in front of you, arriving to pay the cashier before you. You are likely to grumble and think "What an incredible jerk!" Your default assumption is that the person is ill-mannered. You do not realize that the man did not even see you as his attention was largely focused on keeping his two children with him and moving to the cashier. Thus, your dispositional attribution for his behavior was, in this instance, incorrect. The man simply did not see you as his attention was focused on his children.

Layman's terms

* please see below

The two opposing perspectives:

1. When I do well it is because I am talented and good (internal cause: my credit), when I do poorly it is because of bad luck (external cause: not my fault).

2. When you do well it is because you are lucky (external cause: not your credit), when you do poorly it is because you are bad, unskilled, no talent, poor character, etc. (internal cause: your blame).

Examples:

Example a: I stub my toe because the object was in my way (external cause), someone else stubs their toe because they weren't paying attention (internal cause).

Example b: I do well on a test because I studied hard and am smart (internal cause), someone else does well on a test because the test was easy and the teacher liked them (external cause).

• I think that these examples may be of the actor-observer discrepancy, I'll provide another example that may be better suited:

You see two men lifting a file cabinet. When they tip it over the drawers all slide out and the contents of the cabinet come crashing to the floor. You immediately arrive at the conclusion that these two men must not be too bright. You come to that conclusion as a result of the fundamental attribution error; after all, it's possible that the lock on the drawers broke, or there may be some other explanation for their mishap.

Why the fundamental attribution error occurs

One theoretical view holds that the error results largely from perspective. When we observe other people, the person is the primary reference point. When we observe ourselves, we are more aware of the forces acting upon us. So, attributions for others’ behavior are more likely to focus on the person we see, not the situational forces acting upon that person that we may not be aware of. In the parlance of psychology research, this is called salience -- more "salient" factors are more likely to be attributed as causal. Because too much data can cause “cognitive clutter”, individuals need a system to enable them to rank available data in terms of its immediate importance. ...

How to reduce the error's effects

A number of "debiasing" techniques have been found effective in reducing the effect of the fundamental attribution error:

• Take heed to "consensus" information. If most people behave the same way when put in the same situation, then the situation is more likely to be the cause of the behavior.
• Ask yourself how you would behave in the same situation.
• Look for unseen causes. Since "salient" factors are usually overattributed, look for factors you would not normally take notice of.

Related findings

1. Persons in a state of cognitive load are more likely to commit the fundamental attribution error.
2. There is some evidence to support the contention that cultures which tend to emphasize the individual over the group ("individualistic" cultures) tend to make more dispositional attributions than do the "collectivist" cultures. Persons living in more individualistic societies may be more likely to commit the fundamental attribution error(Miller,1984).

This article needs to be wikified. ... Individualism is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes individual liberty, belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence. ...

References

• Heider, Fritz. (1958). The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471368334
• Jones, E. E. & Harris, V. A. (1967). The attribution of attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 3, 1-24.
• Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (vol. 10, pp. 173-220). New York: Academic Press.
• Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995). The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 21-38. PDF.
• Gilbert, D. T. (1998). Speeding with Ned: A personal view of the correspondence bias. In J. M. Darley & J. Cooper (Eds.), Attribution and social interaction: The legacy of E. E. Jones. Washington, DC: APA Press. PDF.
• Miller, J.G. (1984). Culture and the development of everyday social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 961-978.
• Gleitman, H., Fridlund, A., & Reisberg D. (1999). Psychology webBOOK: Psychology Fifth Edition / Basic Psychology Fifth Edition. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. Accessed online 18 April 2006 http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/gman5/glossary/F.htm

See also

• Attribution

Therapeutic Implications: In copyright law, attribution is the requirement that authors be given credit for their work in any context in which it is used. ...

• The related concept of Explanatory Style is a major component of the theories of Learned helplessness and Learned optimism pioneered by Martin Seligman.

Cognitive biases: Learned helplessness, a term initially used in experimental psychology, is a description of the effect of inescapable positive punishment (such as electrical shock) on animal (and by extension, human) behavior. ... Learned helplessness is a well-established principle in psychology, a description of the effect of inescapable punishment (such as electrical shock) on animal (and by extension, human) behavior. ... As of late 2005, Martin E.P. Seligman is Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychology. ... Cognitive bias is any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science and social psychology including very basic statistical, social attribution, and memory errors that are common to all human beings. ...

• Attributional bias
• just-world phenomenon
• Group attribution error
• List of cognitive biases
• Locus of control

Logical fallacies: Attributional biases are cognitive biases which affect attribution -- the way we determine who or what was responsible for an event or action. ... The just-world phenomenon, also called the just-world effect or just-world hypothesis, refers to the tendency for people to believe the world is just and so therefore people get what they deserve. ... The group attribution error is a group-serving, attributional bias identical to the fundamental attribution error except that it occurs between members of different groups rather than different individuals. ... Cognitive bias is distortion in the way we perceive reality (see also cognitive distortion). ... The locus of control is a concept in psychology, originally developed by Julian Rotter. ... In philosophy, the term logical fallacy properly refers to a formal fallacy: a flaw in the structure of a deductive argument which renders the argument invalid. ...

• Compare to ad hominem arguments.
• fallacy of the single cause