I can make a few attributions as to why the biased to ‘fatal’ instead of ‘fundamental’ – we’ll come to that. For now,  let’s just look at what it is, this Fundamental Attribution Error.

It’s the idea that as individuals, we tend to view our own behaviours within the context of our circumstances. However, when we look at the behaviours of others, we tend to overlook circumstances and attribute their behaviours to who they are as a person or to their character.

So what does this really mean? Simply that we let ourselves off the hook given circumstances, but are not so generous when it comes to others. Then we ‘lay into their character’, pass judgments, label and tend to attribute those as the only reason why they are behaving the way they do.  

Here’s an example. Say you are travelling on a local commuter train. The carriage is practically empty except for a man sitting in the aisle opposite you. He looks dishevelled and his two young children are running through the carriage, making a noise and nuisance of themselves. You’re sitting there thinking ‘What a father! Look at the state of him. No wonder he can’t keep his children under control!’  Then you ask him, perhaps in a condescending sort of way, to control his children and he responds, ‘I’m really sorry. We’re all distracted and in a bit of shock. My wife, their mother just passed away.’

Ouch! An extreme case, maybe, but it makes the point that we don’t know what’s going on for others. The best we can do is assume.  Yet we have this tendency to behave as though we know exactly what they are thinking and why they are behaving the way they do.  

Now imagine you never asked him to control his children. You would never have learnt about his circumstances. You just might have gone on telling everyone you encountered after you got off the train your opinion of parents and their unruly children. And you may well have ended the day with a story of how your entire day was spoiled because of these unruly children and their dishevelled father.

That’s a lot of frustration, anger, helplessness – whatever feelings you experienced as a result – generated from an incident where you simply observed something and you came to a whole bunch of conclusions totally unaided (except of course for those kindly contributed by others when you told your tale). And these conclusions ruined your day!  

Yep, that’s the fundamental attribution error in action. Now perhaps you can see why I tend to get stuck on the word ‘fatal’ instead of ‘fundamental’ when I think of this phenomenon. It seems that whenever we give reign to this tendency, things take a turn for the worse.

‘My boss is micromanaging me. Why else would he check on me five times an hour?’

‘My husband is having an affair. Why else would there be this suspicious entry on the credit card statement?’

We see something, we hear something, we bring all our past judgements, values and experiences to bear, with a good dose of that fundamental attribution error and hey presto! We know exactly what is going on. Armed like this, we are ready to take on the opposition and fight tooth and nail for what we believe is right.

And the result? Another strained relationship, another bad day at the office, another nail in the coffin of our marriage.

Fatal indeed… that fundamental attribution error.  It’s gotten me more times than I care to remember.  How about you?