Question

Driving to school one wintry day, Marco narrowly misses a car that slides through a red light. "Slow down! What a terrible driver," he thinks to himself. Moments later, Marco himself slips through an intersection and yelps, "Wow! These roads are awful. The city snowplows need to get out here."

What social psychology principle has Marco just demonstrated?

Answer 1

The answer is the fundamental attribution error.

Step-by-step explanation:

This type of cognitive bias explains that people overestimate the influence of other people's personallities on their actions, and underestimate the circumstances that surround them.

In the example, Marco demonstrates this bias because he assumes the other person's mistake was due to his being a bad driver (not the situation); when the same occurs to him, he blames it on the roads.