Fundamental attribution error applies to arguments as well. We often think of people who are quick to anger, standoffish, unwilling to accept hypotheticals, or deny “obvious” claims as intrinsically close-minded, foolish, or otherwise unreasonable. Instead those behaviours are often manifested due to other sources of persistent stress in their lives, feeling vulnerable/exposed in the moment, or even just a shitty mood.
Basically, thinking of people exhibiting bias as being “biased” at the level of identity is a form of bias. Then again, is it unjustified, or a reasonable belief update based on new information?
Personally, I was never a fan of the FAE term because it seems to privilege environmental causes over dispositional ones without justification. Yes, it could be that they’re angry because they’re hungry, but there genuinely exist people who are dispositionally more angry than most others.
Personally, I was never a fan of the FAE term because it seems to privilege environmental causes over dispositional ones without justification.
I get where you’re coming from, but I think most people need a nudge towards an environmental direction rather than towards the dispositional direction. FAE is I guess just a ‘reminder’ that environmental causes are even possible.
Also I think a lot of people say a lot of things not as falsifiable factual claims, but as status signaling or values signaling or being part of ingroup signaling.
Fundamental attribution error applies to arguments as well. We often think of people who are quick to anger, standoffish, unwilling to accept hypotheticals, or deny “obvious” claims as intrinsically close-minded, foolish, or otherwise unreasonable. Instead those behaviours are often manifested due to other sources of persistent stress in their lives, feeling vulnerable/exposed in the moment, or even just a shitty mood.
Basically, thinking of people exhibiting bias as being “biased” at the level of identity is a form of bias. Then again, is it unjustified, or a reasonable belief update based on new information?
Personally, I was never a fan of the FAE term because it seems to privilege environmental causes over dispositional ones without justification. Yes, it could be that they’re angry because they’re hungry, but there genuinely exist people who are dispositionally more angry than most others.
I get where you’re coming from, but I think most people need a nudge towards an environmental direction rather than towards the dispositional direction. FAE is I guess just a ‘reminder’ that environmental causes are even possible.
Also I think a lot of people say a lot of things not as falsifiable factual claims, but as status signaling or values signaling or being part of ingroup signaling.