Question

While eating at a restaurant, you see a waiter's serving tray accidentally tilt and an avalanche of food and beverages splatters on four people. "what a careless, clumsy idiot," you mumble to yourself as you resume eating. you have just committed?

Answer 1

You have just committed what is called a fundamental attribution error. When we explain people’s behavior we do that by using external and interior factors. When we commit a fundamental attribution we unduly assign some internal factor such as selfishness instead of some external factor as maybe someone being late and we wouldn’t do that when explaining our own behavior.