Ignoring Context: A Look at The Fundamental Attribution Error
Remember back to a time when you witnessed somebody walk in late to an appointment or a meeting. What was your immediate reaction?
Was it that this person must not care? Was it that this person must be selfish? Or was it, something along the lines of, this person must have had a rough morning or maybe even stuck in traffic? My guess is that for most of us, we probably thought that this person must not care or be selfish.
At multiple points in our lives, we have likely made assumptions about someone’s personality based on behavior we have witnessed. However, what if you were late to a meeting? You would probably attribute your lateness to having a rough morning or being stuck in traffic. When you attribute others’ actions to their personalities and underestimate the situation and context that could have played a part, this is referred to as the Fundamental Attribution Error or FAE.
We’ve all done it and it is human nature. Without awareness of this phenomenon, our brains process this limited information and make judgments about a person’s overall character based on a few behaviors. We make these judgments on both strangers and people we know well. FAE occurs in organizations and can affect the way we think about the individuals we recruit, hire, and work with.
Horizon Performance’s propriety software, Gideonsoft, allows data collectors and decision makers to collect objective behavioral data that can then be used to form judgments on that individual when patterns of behavior begin to emerge. This capability is an immensely powerful tool when it can be used properly and decision makers can understand the context and consider factors that could have affected this person’s behavior or performance. This allows them to make an informed opinion on someone’s character. Maybe the behavior is rooted in their character, but perhaps not all of the time.
Decision makers must practice caution when jumping to conclusions about someone’s character without considering the context of the situation. Only then are you able to make an informed opinion about a person’s character more accurately when you understand the context and become more objective about what you are seeing.
What can you do to ensure you are doing what you can to improve FAE? Well it is probably impossible to completely overcome, but there are some things you can do to help you mitigate the bias:
Awareness. The simple fact of being aware of this psychological phenomenon will start the process of being able to think about a person’s behavior differently.
Accounting for the Situation. If a person has engaged in a behavior, or pattern of behaviors, think if there is anything about the situation that may have contributed to those behaviors. Always consider the situation or else you could be missing half of the equation.
Balance. Don’t focus on the negatives. Allow yourself to also see what that person has positively demonstrated.
If you can incorporate these into your daily life, you might begin to look at people a little differently.
