Comment on Open Thread: May 2010, Part 2

Tue, 25 May 2010 17:38:14 GMT

I just thought about it the other day and my brain went into a startling direction.

The fundamental attribution error says that it's self-contradictory to explain other people's actions by their internal traits while explaining your own actions by external circumstances. It goes on to say that the second explanation (circumstances) is uniformly more correct. What if that's an error, and the first explanation actually works better in many cases? For example, the set point of happiness does appear to exist, so there's some truth in labeling someone "an unhappy person" if you see them unhappy at the moment.

Discuss