The fundamental attribution error describes the phenomena that occurs when someone directly targets another’s character as the reason for why the person did or said what they said.
In each day of our lives, we encounter instances that make us uncomfortable--those that usually go against our own moral principles. We see a father leaving his son inside the car, without any opened windows. We see a teenager starting a fight with his mother outside of school. We see children laughing at another child who is just there on the corner, whimpering for her mom to come help her.
So, what do we say about the people displaying this behavior? Of course, we judge. “The father is very irresponsible. He should not be a father for how careless he is with his son.” “The teenager is the most self-entitled person you have ever seen in your life. You are so glad she is not your daughter, or else. . .” Those children? Let’s not get started. “They are the most misbehaved little brats, ever!” Well, we can’t stop there though. “Their parents are horrible role models. They can’t educate their children to be moral human beings?! Ugh!”
This all may sound all too familiar. Perhaps, you have been in a similar situation, whether as the person making the comments or the person being commented on. Either way, no one party is in the right. As far as the three scenarios mentioned, I am not here to say whether or not an action was justified. We are not enforcers of morality. We all carry our own moral standards and philosophies in life. What is okay to you may not be okay with me and vice versa.
What I want to bring attention to is the fact that, had we been in circumstances similar to the ones mentioned above, our first instinct would have probably been to judge the man, teenager, or children who were carrying out the behavior that would have made you uncomfortable. We would go straight to judging the man’s paternal caretaking abilities or even intelligence, the teenager’s “nasty” personality and indecency (having been out in public), and we might have most surely said something about those children who don’t seem to understand respect.
What good does this do, however?
We have spent the few minutes after first observing those uncomfortable incidents simply judging. Have we taken action? More importantly, have we tried to understand?
The latter point needs to be stressed a bit more within ourselves. Rarely do we choose to understand rather than judge. What was going through the father’s mind when he forgot to tend to his child in the car? What antecedent came before the teenager was seen yelling at her mother? What about the girl crying on the side is causing laughter within the rest of the children?
The message to take from this is, we are not here to judge. Judging is the quickest viable option when put in some situations that go against your moral compass. Understanding the situation, however, will certainly provide you with more useful information that you can then use to take appropriate action to remedy the situation. The next time we find ourselves looking for the next best insult to use against this “idiot” in the store or this “senseless” person in the room, it would probably be best if we simply tried to resist that innate urge to judge and, instead, tried to understand.
