fundamental attribution error

Meaning: The fundamental attribution error (FAE) is a bias described in attribution theory. When judging someone else's behavior, observers typically favor dispositional causes (personality, character, effort) and underestimate situational causes (circumstances, pressure, luck). Example: a driver who cuts you off is judged as rude, when the driver may be rushing to an emergency.

On the MCAT: A passage describes an observer explaining another person's behavior, and the question asks which kind of attribution is being made or which bias is at work. Expect to compare dispositional with situational attribution and to link the FAE to the actor-observer bias: people often explain their own actions by the situation but explain other people's actions by disposition. The self-serving bias is a related contrast, in which people tend to credit their own successes to disposition and blame their failures on the situation. Some passages note that the FAE is typically stronger in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic ones.

Common confusion: The FAE is not any attribution to disposition. It is overestimating internal causes of another person's behavior when the situation plausibly explains it. It is also different from the self-serving bias, which protects one's own self-esteem. To settle a question, ask whose behavior is being explained and which kind of cause is being overweighted.