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<blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 4656374" data-attributes="member: 12377">You guys should read about the Fundamental Attribution Error if you don't already know about it:&nbsp; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Attribution_Error" target="_blank">Fundamental attribution error - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>It basically says, that people tend to ascribe to personality traits behaviors that should be ascribed to circumstance.&nbsp; In other words, a person will behave very differently in different situations, rather than having a consistent behavior in all situations.For example, one famous study of high school students showed that there was zero correlation between cheating on homework and cheating on a quiz -- so the notion that someone is a &quot;cheater&quot; is not generally useful.&nbsp; It would be more accurate to say that someone is a &quot;cheater-on-homework&quot; vs a &quot;cheater-on-quizzes,&quot; but that's not foolproof either, since there are different types of homework that some cheaters-on-homework might be more or less inclined to cheat on.It's easy to see examples from everyday life:&nbsp; the guy who is scrupulously honest with his friends but lies to his enemies, or the businessman who is full of integrity at work but cheats on his wife, or the generally brave and courageous person who is squeamish about blood and can't speak in front of crowds.&nbsp; The Fundamental Attribution Error states that the truth is way more complicated and subtle than that:&nbsp; The &quot;scrupulously honest with his friends&quot; guy might have no problem lying to a person for their own protection, for example.&nbsp; Or maybe he does have a problem with it and won't do it.&nbsp; The fact that we perceive him as &quot;scrupulously honest&quot; is really a lousy predictor of behavior in any specific situation.It's not about hypocrisy -- everybody thinks they are doing the proper thing, most of the time.&nbsp; The Fundamental Attribution Error doesn't get into group-think or self-deception, either, which can also skew a person towards some behavior in conflict with their observed personality characteristics.Interesting stuff.&nbsp; I'm not saying that people don't have general behavior trends or distinct personality characteristics (they definitely do!), just that the reality of how people wind up acting in myriad situations can't be boiled down to broad personality traits.&nbsp;-- 77IM</blockquote>

[QUOTE="77IM, post: 4656374, member: 12377"] You guys should read about the Fundamental Attribution Error if you don't already know about it: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Attribution_Error]Fundamental attribution error - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/url] It basically says, that people tend to ascribe to personality traits behaviors that should be ascribed to circumstance. In other words, a person will behave very differently in different situations, rather than having a consistent behavior in all situations. For example, one famous study of high school students showed that there was [i]zero[/i] correlation between cheating on homework and cheating on a quiz -- so the notion that someone is a "cheater" is not generally useful. It would be more accurate to say that someone is a "cheater-on-homework" vs a "cheater-on-quizzes," but that's not foolproof either, since there are different types of homework that some cheaters-on-homework might be more or less inclined to cheat on. It's easy to see examples from everyday life: the guy who is scrupulously honest with his friends but lies to his enemies, or the businessman who is full of integrity at work but cheats on his wife, or the generally brave and courageous person who is squeamish about blood and can't speak in front of crowds. The Fundamental Attribution Error states that the truth is [I]way [/I]more complicated and subtle than that: The "scrupulously honest with his friends" guy might have no problem lying to a person for their own protection, for example. Or maybe he does have a problem with it and won't do it. The fact that we perceive him as "scrupulously honest" is really a lousy predictor of behavior in any specific situation. It's not about hypocrisy -- everybody thinks they are doing the proper thing, most of the time. The Fundamental Attribution Error doesn't get into group-think or self-deception, either, which can also skew a person towards some behavior in conflict with their observed personality characteristics. Interesting stuff. I'm not saying that people don't have general behavior trends or distinct personality characteristics (they definitely do!), just that the reality of how people wind up acting in myriad situations can't be boiled down to broad personality traits. -- 77IM [/QUOTE]

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