Psychologists call this tendency the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE), which is a fancy way of saying that when it comes to interpreting other people's behavior, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of the situation and context.He goes on to give an example of an experiment in which people were asked to observe two similarly skilled basketball players, one playing in a well-lighted gym, and the other playing in a darkened gym and consequently missing many shots. When asked to judge the abilities of the players, the observers judged the player in the well-lighted gym to be superior, thereby ignoring the important role of situation and context--namely, the fact that one player was performing in a environment more conducive to excellence than the other.
It is interesting in this light to think of the protective role played by Bahá'u'lláh's admonition not to judge others. Even when the differing contexts are obvious, such as in the above example, there is a tendency to make rather sweeping--and inaccurate--character judgments; how much more problematic given that the contextual factors are usually even more subtle and nuanced than in the above example and that we can never really know the full context of the actions of others. From Bahá'u'lláh's Hidden Words we learn that the person for whom we have the most information about context and situation--and thus are in the best position to bring to account--is ourself:
The tongue I have designed for the mention of Me, defile it not with detraction. If the fire of self overcome you, remember your own faults and not the faults of My creatures, inasmuch as every one of you knoweth his own self better than he knoweth others.
8 comments:
Very interesting!
Thanks for the Baha'i reference. I work as a counsellor. I use a slide from a training on marriage that reads as follows:
FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
"I am OK, you are defective!"
In counselling it presents as:
"Fix her/him and our marriage will be fine."
Nice connection between psychology and the Hidden Words. Like George Wesley I also work in the mental health field. I'm planning to include more material related psychology on my blog, Baha'i Thought. Looking forward to being a regular reader of your blog. Thanks!
FAE is a pretty negative thought process that we're all guilty of following until aware of it and why it happens. Maybe some day when everyone is aware of how to avoid thinking this way we'll all live in a utopian society without stereotypes. This type of material should be taught to children in grade school so that it’s common practice to not be a part of the error phenomenon.
The FAE is basically another way of saying that people "only judge a book by its cover". It is part of human nature to wonder why others act the way they do, and it is also part of human nature to assume the reasons behind the actions of others. Doing experiments such as the one where people are asked to judge two basketball players (one in a lighted gym, and the other in a dark gym) and comment on their talents, is a way to prove that people assume reasons when they don't know the underlying circumstances. The basketball player experiment showed that even though there were obvious differences as to why the two people performed differently, people still said the one in the lighted room had talent and the other did not. Why is that? Maybe it's just because people ignore the lighting and think that no matter what, if you're good at playing basketball you will be able to play in any light. I feel that this experiment proves that people definitely don't take outside factors into account when judging them. It bothers me that people are this way, and I know I have been guilty of FAE, but never to the extent where I am disgusted with that person because of what I see.
Religion and culture also play a big role in FAE, and I guess there is no way to stop it, because you can't always stop and talk to someone to find out why they are doing what they do (such as smiling and skipping through the streets). That saying: "don't judge a book by its cover", is obviously not applied in most of these situations.
P.S. I am in a psychology class and it was part of our assignment to post a comment on an interesting FAE blog we read. Sorry if it's a bit long.
This theory is very interesting because when judging someone people forget to look at certain's such as enviroment or events leading up to current. For Example, people who imprisoned are often labeled as bad people or with a negative connotation which is argueable depending on the situation but does any one back track or take a laps into the person's life to seeing how they got that way. How could someone become that way. In my case people see me on a skateboard and dont understand that its not that easy or usual for black kids to skateboard in my neighborhood. So when they see me now and be like..Oh that kids pretty good , i had to be that much better because over comming unnecessary barriers that most dont makes it the best part of who i'm.
the FAE is an error that everyone makes on a daily basis. i do not think that these sorts of mistakes are avoidable because there is no way that you can explain anyone else's actions, opinions or behavior besides your own, yet as a human being you seek to explain everything that you are around. a person doesn't turn in an assignment in on time, you assume that person was just lazy and has bad work ethic, but for all you know there could have been an extraneous circumstance that prevented him/her from completing their assignment. i for one can say that i pass judgements on people on a regular basis whether i want to or not. i guess the best thing to do is acknowledge these judgements as being just that, and not assuming that you are right about any given situation or person.
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