For example, let’s say you are watching a classmate give a presentation. While these biases are now considered separate, the fundamental attribution error can contribute to the correspondence bias. Meanwhile, the fundamental attribution error focuses on how underestimating the impact of situational factors lead to these incorrect assumptions. 4,5 Put another way, we assume that people’s actions correspond to their core internal attitudes. While they describe the same phenomenon, the correspondence bias focuses on our tendecy to infer larger, and more unchanging, aspects about peoples’ personalities based on their behavior. For a long time, the two terms were used interchangeably, before a number of researchers started to argue that they were distinct. Similar to the fundamental attribution error is the correspondence bias. You negate the factors that implicate your own shortcomings, like the fact that you only studied the night before or that you missed your teachers' tutorials. You may cite that your teacher did not properly relay the material and concepts or that your exam was much harder than that of your peers. In other words, while we like to explain our own actions in terms of the various external factors when it comes to other people, we are quick to say that they act the way they do because that’s just the “way they are.” 1įor example, if you do really poorly on an exam, you may be inclined to blame external factors in order to rationalize the result. According to this cognitive bias, people have a tendency to make dispositional attributions for other people’s behavior, and situational attributions for their own. The fundamental attribution error is often associated with another, similar phenomenon, the actor-observer bias (also known as actor-observer asymmetry). This can become a barrier to addressing systemic issues in our society as we are quick to negate the situational factors that play into someone’s behavior or observable actions. We are particularly likely to fall victim to the fundamental attribution error when considering negative behavior, including what we consider to be immoral.

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