Attribution Error (Correspondence Bias)

The fundamental attribution error: the tendency to attribute others' behavior to their character (dispositional attribution) while attributing your own behavior to circumstances (situational attribution). Someone cuts you off in traffic: they're a terrible driver (dispositional). You cut someone off: you were late for an emergency (situational). In organizations: an employee misses a deadline—they're unreliable (dispositional). You miss a deadline—the project was under-resourced (situational). The asymmetry produces systematic misunderstanding: we judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions.

When to use it

When interpersonal conflicts are fueled by character judgments; when performance evaluations attribute individual outcomes to disposition without accounting for situation; when cross-cultural misunderstandings arise from judging behavior without understanding context; when 'they're just like that' is preventing productive problem-solving.

How it can help

When evaluating others' behavior: ask 'what situational factors might explain this?' before attributing it to character. The practice: whenever you're tempted to explain someone's behavior with a character judgment ('they're lazy/incompetent/malicious'), generate at least two situational explanations that could produce the same behavior. In management: before judging an employee's performance as a character issue, audit the situation—do they have adequate resources, clear expectations, appropriate training, and manageable workload? In relationships: 'they don't care' is usually an attribution error; 'they're overwhelmed' is usually more accurate.