PSYCH 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Fundamental Attribution Error, Psych
Document Summary
The tendency to overestimate internal causes for other"s behavior. When we"re making attributions about other people"s behavior, we tend to want to make internal attributions. Oftentimes we"ll ignore potentially strong external reasons for why they do what they do because we have this fundamental need to make an internal attribution. Individuals are salient whereas situations are not, that leads us to be more likely to say that the individual caused their own behavior. Research has shown that we tend to want stable expectations about them. It"s easier on us to think people are acting based on something that is internal to them, because we want people to be predictable. If we acknowledge that environment may cause people"s actions, in the future it is hard for us to analyze every situation the person is in. Cognitive miser: it"s less tiring, it"s easier to make an internal attribution about someone"s behavior. Leads to believe in a just world .
