Question

You conclude that Carla is a naturally anxious woman. You ignore the fact that Carla is currently working on a tight-deadline project and is spending 100 hours per week at work. You are demonstrating the:

a) Fundamental attribution error
b) Confirmation bias
c) Self-serving bias
d) Cognitive dissonance

Answer 1

The student's observation of Carla's anxiety while neglecting the impact of her work situation is an example of the fundamental attribution error, which is the tendency to emphasize personal traits over situational factors in explaining behavior.

Step-by-step explanation:

When you conclude that Carla is a naturally anxious woman and ignore the fact that she's working on a tight deadline project for 100 hours a week, you are demonstrating the fundamental attribution error.

This cognitive bias involves placing undue emphasis on internal characteristics to explain someone's behavior in a given situation, rather than considering the external factors that may be influencing them.

This is because, as observers, we often lack complete information about a person's situational context and default to dispositional explanations. It differs from the confirmation bias, which is about looking for information that affirms our pre-existing beliefs, and self-serving bias, which is our tendency to attribute successes to internal factors and failures to external ones.