PSY 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Richard E. Nisbett, Fundamental Attribution Error, Psy

• School: Tunxis Community College
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 240
• Professor: Rondinone

Document Summary

The fundamental attribution error fundamental attribution error: the tendency to focus on the role of personal causes and underestimate the impact of situations on other people"s behaviour. Evidence of the fundamental attribution error was first reported in the jones and harris (1967) study described earlier, in which participants read an essay presumably written by a student. In that study, participants were more likely to infer the student"s true attitude when the position taken had been freely chosen than when they thought that the student had been assigned to it. People fall prey to the fundamental attribution error even when they are fully aware of the situation"s impact on behaviour. (p. 116) According to daniel gilbert and patrick malone (1995), the problem stems in part from how we make attributions. Attribution theorists used to assume that people survey all the evidence and then decide on either a personal or a situational attribution.