The human tendency to attribute others' actions to fundamental character traits and overlooking context, whilst attributing our own actions to context or external factors rather than fundamental character traits.
Example: When we assume businessmen are selfish are just care about money.
Insight: We consistently underestimate context.
Insight: We may underestimate external factors in our behaviour as we tend to try to rationalise or internalise our decision making.
Insight: Brands should focus on target contexts as much as target audiences since context influences behaviour.
Reference: The Darley & Batson Experiment 1973: catholic priests stopping to help someone in need was highly influenced by whether they we told they needed to hurry to meet an appointment, not by their character traits.
Principles: For business: (1) Research little and often, (2)Target contexts as well as audiences, (3) Don't assume you know the right context.
Definition: The tendency to blame other people's failures on internal causes, while attributing our own failures to external circumstances.
Insight: Most people examine others' failures differently to their own.
Insight: We attribute others' failures to the person: their lack of knowledge, expertise, or personality flaws.
Insight: We are not good at looking at our own flaws: we blame external circumstances, and ignore internal causes.
Insight: We tend not to learn well from mistakes. Rather than adapting to feedback we rationalise our actions, and become dismissive.
Definition: The tendency to overestimate an individuals' influence and underestimate external or contextual factors.
Example: Blaming negative events on a single individual.
Insight: Journalists and their readers, looking to attribute people to events or a story, often fall prey to the fundamental attribution error.
Principle: Pay close attention to the external environment or influences to which people are subjected to understand behaviour.
Definition: The effect that makes us quick to appraise ourselves based on external circumstances, but not give others the same treatment: we see others' failures as internal.
Example: When you personally are unkind it is because you are having a bad day but when someone else is unkind to you, they are a terrible person.
Insight: The danger of the fundamental attribution error is that leads us to overweigh the potential upside of our decisions, but under weigh the downside and risks.
Definition: We tend to view others' actions as reflections of their character and overlook contextual influences, whereas with ourselves we recognise that context influences our actions.
Example: When someone else's phone rings at the cinema its because they are inconsiderate, but if my phone rings its because I need to be able to take a call from the babysitter and others shouldn't judge.
Principle: Do not judge people too harshly, especially when meeting for the first time.
Definition: When others screw up we blame their character; when we screw up to attribute it to circumstance.
Insight: Avoiding this error makes it easier to stay on good terms with colleagues.
Insight: Persistent and consistent errors need to be resolved; otherwise it may be beneficial to give others the benefit of the doubt.
Principle: When something isn't going as expected, try to find out as much as possible about the circumstances surrounding the behaviour.
Definition: The tendency to attribute actions to character traits and overlook the influence of context.
Insight: Job interviews can be a misleading representation of someone, since the context can make people nervous and not be a true representation of someones regular behaviour.
Definition: The strong tendency to assign blame or credit to people for actions and outcomes that would be better explained by luck or circumstances.
Definition: We tend to blame others more for acts with bad consequences than we do ourselves.
Definition: When observing behaviour we tend to not attribute enough weight to context.
Definition: The tendency to see the behaviour of others as personal characteristics without considering the situation.
Reference: Lee Ross: social psychologist coined the term.
Key Insights & Principles
Relationships
We tend to interpret others' actions differently from our own.
We underestimate context when judging other people.
Pay attention to context when observing behaviour.
Do not judge people's character too early.
Business
Businesses should focus on target contexts as well as target audiences because purchase decisions are influenced by context at least as much as by their personality characteristics.
Job interviews are not always an accurate representation of how someone will act in the work environment: the context may make someone act (nervous, or overconfident) differently from their normal behaviour.
Understand and target context as well as customers.
Do not assume you know the right context: continue to research.
