Practice question · Multiple choice
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?
Hints
- List what you know about your own morning. Now list what you know about theirs.
- The asymmetry weakens when you know someone very well. What does that suggest is doing the work?
Show the 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.
Practise Attribution Theory and the Fundamental Attribution Error
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on Attribution Theory and the Fundamental Attribution Error
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