Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
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Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
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Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#2Well written. I didn't know this by name, but it's something I've noticed in my life - often the circumstances of an action, or even the circumstances of an individual explain an event far better than the individual themselves.
There was a recent post that went into a modification of Hanlon's Razor to "Never attribute to stupidity what can be explained by opportunity cost". Another example, I think of the same.
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#3you are worshipping false gods
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#4Here's a question that I've been wondering about for a while:
What happens if your fundamental attributions grow up from proximate personal narratives into a social philosophy?
Perhaps one where you understand yourself as some worthy ingroup whose shortcomings are primarily functions of imposed circumstance, with the shortcomings of outsiders primarily being functions of their character failings?
(Yes, you can see that in your political opposition! Congratulations. I won't say it's equally distributed across political spectra, since I think it's plausible that there are camps which are more widely concerned about circumstance over individual character and addressing systematic issues that contribute to circumstance. But if you can't see some form of this in the political affiliations you identify with, then you may not have truly grasped the fundamental attribution error dynamic yet.)
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#5The fundamental attribution error is the number 1 most important lesson I learned from Psych classes growing up. Being aware of it is the easiest way to be less of an asshole to people around you. I really can't overstate the importance.
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#6Here's a question that I've been wondering about for a while: What happens if your fundamental attributions grow up from proximate personal narratives into a social philosophy? Perhaps one where you understand yourself as some worthy ingroup whose shortcomings are primarily functions of imposed circumstance, with the shortcomings of outsiders primarily being functions of their character failings? (Yes, you can see th…
> What happens if your fundamental attributions grow up from proximate personal narratives into a social philosophy?
> Perhaps one where you understand yourself as some worthy ingroup whose shortcomings are primarily functions of imposed circumstance, with the shortcomings of outsiders primarily being functions of their character failings?
If other people in the ingroup you identify share this identity, then, congratulations, you are now part of a human tribe.
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#7I think it's a credit to Lee Ross and the idea that I remember the concept but not the name, or the originator of the idea.
I think programming as a discipline is chock full of examples of attribution error. When I think back to the less experienced version of myself, or even the current version of myself on a bad day/intellectually lazy moment, or just reading programming forums for more than a few minutes, I can easily come up with examples.
And I can find plenty of examples where I commit this exact error: many, many seemingly stupid technical decisions that can be explained by the context in which they were made, and more importantly, if I were in the exact situation that spawned the decision, it's not clear that I would have chosen differently either. It's only with the benefit of hindsight that I can disagree with the decision, and the really hard, important, career-spanning question is "how would I have arrived at the right decision in the same context?"
The only remotely good answer I've found to that question is reading extensively, especially outside of my comfort zone, which of course I don't do enough of.
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#8Attribution error comes up all the time on Hacker News, in lots of different ways; it's probably root cause of the modal Dan Gackle moderation comment about "notice-dislike bias".
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#9A different (but related)formulation is that we judge ourselves by our intentions, but others by their results.
Re: Lee Ross and the “Fundamental Attribution Error”
#10Here's a question that I've been wondering about for a while: What happens if your fundamental attributions grow up from proximate personal narratives into a social philosophy? Perhaps one where you understand yourself as some worthy ingroup whose shortcomings are primarily functions of imposed circumstance, with the shortcomings of outsiders primarily being functions of their character failings? (Yes, you can see th…
> What happens if your fundamental attributions grow up from proximate personal narratives into a social philosophy? > Perhaps one where you understand yourself as some worthy ingroup whose shortcomings are primarily functions of imposed circumstance, with the shortcomings of outsiders primarily being functions of their character failings? If other people in the ingroup you identify share this identity, then, congrat…
That's a bit reductive. All tribes may share this characteristic, but not to the same degree.
The GP even says as much.