# Attribution Theory and the Fundamental Attribution Error

Psychology I · Social Psychology · https://tryals.app/learn/psychology-i/attribution-theory-and-the-fundamental-attribution-error

## Explaining Why People Act

Every day we act as amateur scientists, asking **why** someone did what they did. **Attribution theory** studies how we assign these causes.

We attribute behavior to either the **person** (**dispositional** or internal causes like personality) or the **situation** (**situational** or external causes like luck or pressure).

| Cause Type | Meaning | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Dispositional** | Internal traits | Personality, ability |
| **Situational** | External factors | Circumstances, pressure |

We do this with a systematic slant. The **fundamental attribution error (FAE)** is our tendency, when explaining **other people's** behavior, to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational ones.

The driver who cuts you off is **a reckless jerk** (disposition), rarely **someone rushing to a hospital** (situation).

## Biases in Attribution

The bias flips when we explain **ourselves**. The **actor–observer bias** is that we attribute **our own** behavior to the situation, but **others'** behavior to disposition.

$$\text{others} \to \text{disposition}, \; \text{self} \to \text{situation}$$

The **self-serving bias** adds another twist: we claim credit for successes (disposition: **I am skilled**) while blaming failures on circumstances (situation: **the exam was unfair**).

| Bias | We explain... | ...by favoring |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Fundamental attribution error** | **others'** behavior | disposition |
| **Actor–observer bias** | **our own** behavior | situation |
| **Self-serving bias** | **our own** outcomes | success = us, failure = circumstance |

> **Common pitfall:** Thinking the FAE applies to everyone. It specifically describes how we judge **others**. For **ourselves**, the tendency reverses.

## Practice questions

6 of this lesson's 12 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. The same event - a colleague missing a deadline - is explained four ways. Put the explanations in order from the MOST situational to the MOST dispositional.

**Answer:**

1. Her server crashed and destroyed two days of finished work.
2. She was handed the brief three days later than everyone else was.
3. She finds it hard to prioritise when several urgent tasks land at once.
4. She is fundamentally unreliable and always has been.

**Why:** The first two name external events that would have hindered anyone; the third names a specific personal tendency triggered by a particular situation; the fourth is a global trait claim that ignores circumstances entirely. The slide toward the fourth explanation, when the first two are available, is what the fundamental attribution error looks like in practice.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/attribution-theory-and-the-fundamental-attribution-error/the-same-event-a-colleague-missing-a-deadline-is-explained-four

### 2. Each judgement below is biased. Identify which attribution bias it displays.

**Answer:**

- Actor-observer bias → You cut someone off yourself, and explain that you were racing to a hospital appointment.
- Self-serving bias → You get top marks and say it shows how hard you worked; you fail the next paper and say the questions were unfair.
- Fundamental attribution error → A driver cuts you off on the motorway and you conclude he is a reckless jerk.

**Why:** r1 and r4 explain a stranger by character while ignoring visible circumstances - the fundamental attribution error. r2 and r5 explain the speaker's own behaviour situationally - the actor-observer bias. r3 is the self-serving bias specifically, because the same person's success and failure are attributed in opposite directions.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/attribution-theory-and-the-fundamental-attribution-error/each-judgement-below-is-biased-identify-which-attribution-bias-it

### 3. Sort each explanation by the kind of cause it appeals to.

**Answer:**

- Dispositional (something about the person): She won because she is exceptionally talented, He gave up because he lacks persistence, They volunteered because they are generous people
- Situational (something about the circumstances): He was short with me because he had just been given bad news, They failed the task because the instructions were ambiguous, I was late because the roads were flooded

**Why:** Talent, lack of persistence and generosity are properties of the person and travel with them; bad news, ambiguous instructions and flooded roads would have affected anyone in that position. Sorting them is the raw material for the biases: the errors consist of choosing the wrong column depending on whose behaviour is being explained.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/attribution-theory-and-the-fundamental-attribution-error/sort-each-explanation-by-the-kind-of-cause-it-appeals-to

### 4. Select every statement that is TRUE of the attribution biases as this lesson describes them.

A. For our own behaviour the tendency reverses toward situations.
B. Self-serving bias splits our outcomes: success ours, failure circumstantial.
C. The attribution error means we prefer dispositions for everyone alike.
D. The attribution error concerns how we explain OTHER people.
E. A situational attribution blames character rather than circumstances.

**Answer:** A. For our own behaviour the tendency reverses toward situations.; B. Self-serving bias splits our outcomes: success ours, failure circumstantial.; D. The attribution error concerns how we explain OTHER people.

**Why:** The fundamental attribution error is about others, the actor-observer bias reverses it for the self, and the self-serving bias splits our own outcomes by valence. Option 3 is the named pitfall of over-generalising, and option 5 inverts the definition - a situational attribution points at the circumstances, not the character.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/attribution-theory-and-the-fundamental-attribution-error/select-every-statement-that-is-true-of-the-attribution-biases-as-this

### 5. In Jones and Harris's study, readers judged an essay writer as genuinely pro-Castro even when told he had been assigned that position and given no choice. Why is knowing about the constraint not enough to prevent the error?

A. Because participants did not believe the essays had really been assigned.
B. Because the constraint was mentioned too briefly for participants to remember it while reading.
C. Because dispositional inference is fast and correction is effortful.
D. Because a writer assigned a position will unconsciously come to hold it, so the judgement was accurate.

**Answer:** C. Because dispositional inference is fast and correction is effortful.

**Why:** The correction fails despite the information being right there. Inference runs in two stages, dispositional characterisation is fast and automatic, adjusting for constraint is effortful and often skipped, which predicts that the error grows under time pressure. It also explains the actor-observer asymmetry: of someone else you have only the behaviour.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/attribution-theory-and-the-fundamental-attribution-error/in-jones-and-harriss-study-readers-judged-an-essay-writer-as

### 6. You explain your own lateness by the traffic and a colleague's by their disorganisation. Both were late. Why does the explanation flip with the person?

A. Because your own lateness genuinely had external causes more often
B. Because you can see your own situation and only their behaviour
C. Because dispositional explanations are more accurate for other people
D. Because people deliberately protect their own reputation at others' expense

**Answer:** B. Because you can see your own situation and only their behaviour

**Why:** The situation is vivid from inside and invisible from outside, so the same event yields different explanations from different vantage points. The tell is that the asymmetry shrinks for people whose circumstances you know, which points at available information rather than motivated self-flattery.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/attribution-theory-and-the-fundamental-attribution-error/you-explain-your-own-lateness-by-the-traffic-and-a-colleagues-by