What is the Ultimate attribution error bias?
The ultimate attribution error bias is a cognitive bias that occurs when people attribute others’ actions to dispositional factors, while ignoring the power of situational determinants.
In other words, the person states that the behavior was due to personal qualities while ignoring external factors influencing their choice of action.
Why this bias is dangerous?
This can be dangerous because it ignores situational forces and always attributes a behavior to either an internal disposition or permanent situation.
Many times we hear people saying: « It’s his nature » or « that’s just how he is » This might lead us believe that there is nothing we can do about others behaviors if they are determined by their personality traits. People who use this phrase generally try to justify their own decisions, choices and beliefs by giving them a positive status.
Why do people use this bias?
This might be because it is more convenient for us if we are able to attribute the behavior of others to permanent characteristics rather than situational factors.
How do people use this bias?
People tend to use the ultimate attribution error when describing one’s own thoughts, feelings or actions as influenced by internal dispositions while describing someone else’s thoughts, feelings or actions as being determined by external situations.
It is also common to hear someone saying things like « He is lazy » or « She is just not motivated ». Although there are multiple reasons why somebody chooses not decide to go out for an extra hour of work, maybe he doesn’t have money for a taxi or maybe she is not feeling well.
On the other side of this coin, another common attribution mistake is when people explain their own behavior as being influenced by situational factors while explaining someone else’s behavior as being based on internal dispositions. For example, « I failed my exams because I had to study with a broken laptop » or « She forgot her appointment because she woke up late ». Maybe you didn’t have time to go out and buy a new laptop or maybe your alarm clock was not loud enough for you to wake up.
How can we create this bias?
We can create this bias by giving ourselves an excuse in case our expectations are met. Such excuses would be when our plans are not fulfilled, we assume that the failure is due to someone else’s actions instead of looking for ways to improve ourselves in the future.
How to avoid this bias?
To avoid this cognitive fallacy, you should try to always think about what could have caused someone behavior before attributing it to internal factors or external factors. If you consider both variables when trying to explain why something happened, you will be more open minded and will be able take more responsibility on your own decisions and actions.
Ultimate attribution error bias examples:
- A football player gains weight and blames it on his wife’s cooking.
- A group of friends go out to celebrate the end of an exam, but one student decides not to go because he doesn’t like drinking alcohol. The students blame it on the fact that he is a recovering alcoholic.
Which profession use this bias?
Sportsmen are often accused of using this bias when they gain or loose weight by blaming their lifestyle choices on family members while ignoring their own role in making these decisions.
Policemen also tend to ignore external factors by explaining an event as the consequence of an internal factor like race or gender.
Conclusion.
The Ultimate attribution error bias is a cognitive fallacy which happens when people use situational factors to explain someone else’s behavior and permanent characteristics to explain their own behavior. Whenever you experience this kind of reasoning, try to question yourself about what was really happening instead of looking for excuses that might lead you into dangerous beliefs..