The Fundamental Attribution Error

Time and again i keep seeing posts where flamers complain that "he made me do it". But what most of them don't realise is that, just as they themselves had a reason for getting angry, the person who made them angry had a reason for whatever it is he/she did to cause that reaction

For example:

Suppose you come into work and see your colleague kicking his desk. You think, 'what an angry person he must be'.

Your colleague is thinking about how someone bumped him into a wall on the way to work and then shouted at him. Anyone would be angry at that, he thinks.

When we look at others we see personality traits that explain their behaviour, but when we look at ourselves we see circumstances that explain our behaviour.

People's stories make internal sense to them, from the inside, but we don't see people's histories trailing behind them in the air. We only see them in one situation, and we don't see what they would be like in a different situation.

So the fundamental attribution error is that we explain by permanent, enduring traits what would be better explained by circumstance and context.

[fiora-cool]

just something to keep in mind when encountering trolls, inters and hot head flamers.