Understanding Fundamental Attribution Error

In my article "The Need for Psychology Understanding”, I discussed how fiction writers need at least a basic understanding of psychology in order to write realistic content, dialogues, characters, and relationships. One such psychological concept is the fundamental attribution error. The fundamental attribution error was first created by social psychologist Lee Ross in 1977; however, research on the topic dates back to the 1950s when social psychologists investigated the lay perceivers’ understanding of the causes of human behavior (Vohs, Baumeister, & Sage Publications Inc. 2007).
The fundamental attribution error is when people attribute a person's behavior to their personality while ignoring the possible situational factors, which could be the actual cause for the person's behavior (Everyday Psychology Interactive, n.d.). This error occurs when a person underestimates the causal impact of situational factors on human behavior while also overestimating the impact of dispositional factors (Vohs, Baumeister, & Sage Publications inc. 2007). The fundamental attribution error also states that the behaving person, the one attributing another person’s action to the individual’s personality, tends to see his or her own behavior as caused by the situation rather than internal characteristics (Fundamental Attribution Error, 2004).
The fundamental attribution error is something many people experience and examples of it can be found in almost any area of life. For example, if a person is speeding, some people might attribute the speeding to negative personality characteristics like anger or a lack of care. However, the person might be speeding in order to get to the hospital. Another example would be if people attributed an individual’s reason for speaking loudly to that person’s desire to have everyone’s attention on them when, in fact, the individual had recently been in a very loud environment which had temporarily affected their hearing.
The fundamental attribution error can occur to anyone anywhere and can be used in fiction to explain a character’s correct or incorrect reasoning. For instance, if a character is shopping and notices a different character buying a lot of food, the character might just assume the buyer was likely throwing a party based on the number of purchases. However, that would be making a fundamental attribution error, as the character would only be considering the buyer’s personality and not any situational factors. In making, this assumption the character would be ignoring the possibility that the buyer was making a large purchase based on a situational factor like a sale or coupons. The fundamental attribution error can be utilized in any fiction story, though it would likely be most useful for mystery stories as it could be used to explain clues, the detective's reasoning, and to show off ways that the mystery solver avoided making this error.
References
Everyday Psychology Interactive. (n.d.) Everyday Psychology Interactive. Retrieved from
http://snhu-media.snhu.edu/files/imedia/psy530/m2/psy530_m2_everyday_psychology_interactive_output/story.html
Fundamental Attribution Error. (2004). The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and
Behavioral Science. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edscrc&AN=edscrc.4410430&site=eds-live&scope=site
Ross, L. (n.d.). From the fundamental attribution error to the truly fundamental attribution
error and beyond: my research journey. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 13(6), 750–769. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1177/1745691618769855
Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., & Sage Publications, inc. (2007). Encyclopedia of Social
Psychology. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, Inc. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohostcom.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=474305&site=ehost-live&scope=site

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