The Fundamental Attribution Error Explained

How we easily make mistakes when judging people — and how we’re sometimes right.

We are quick to judge others, which is not a bad thing per se. It helps in situations where we need to act fast and see who we can trust to help out. Studies have shown that we are usually a pretty good judge of character within fractions of seconds. Just by briefly looking at a picture of a face we are on average quite accurate when it comes to predicting a range of real-world outcomes, from political elections, to hiring decisions, criminal sentencing, or dating. But there are limits to our judgments about others.

Theory of Mind enables us to relate to other people’s thoughts and perceptions, but it — of course — does not help us read people’s minds. Our interpretations of other people’s personalities and intentions are based mostly on observing their actions. If someone smiles at us, we see the smile and interpret its meaning. Depending on the circumstances, the form of the smile, and the prior history we share with the smiler, we infer a meaning about the smile. What we ultimately conclude it to be — a friendly smile, a smirk, a feinted smile — will be added to our characterization of the smiler. Our conclusion about the observed (short-lived) behavior will help determine our conclusion about the (more…