we don’t attribute correctly when we think about others versus ourselves. We have a bias in the way we attribute the causes of success and failure — particularly failure
“When we observe … highly flawed decision making we often ask ourselves, ‘How could they have been so stupid?’ We often attribute others’ decision making failures to a lack of intelligence, relevant expertise, or even to personality flaws in the individuals involved. We might even question their motives.
“Of course, we think of our own decision making failures in a very different way. We tend to blame an unforeseeable change in external factors. We don’t attribute it to the factors within ourselves such as intelligence, personality, or expertise.
“Psychologists describe this dichotomy as the Fundamental Attribution Error. In short, we don’t attribute correctly when we think about others versus ourselves. We have a bias in the way we attribute the causes of success and failure — particularly failure.”
Professor Michael A. Roberto, The Art of Critical Decision Making, Lecture 1: Making High Stakes Decisions. 6m 45s
