ABSTRACT
The fundamental attribution error (FAE) is an error involving a bias in favour of ‘dispositional’ explanations—appeals to character traits, attitudes and the like—and a corresponding bias against situational explanations. However, a deeper acquaintance with evidence for the FAE leads the author to experience two sorts of doubts about the case for a pervasive FAE. There are surprisingly many reasons for thinking that the experimental evidence for the FAE is less easily generalisable than L. Ross and R. Nisbett assume. Experimental evidence suggests that the FAE is a mostly Western phenomenon. Studies in India and China indicate that the FAE is present to a much lesser extent in more collectivist Eastern societies than in the individualistic West. J. Sabatini et al. discuss a variety of FAE experiments, but they do not actually discuss the Darley-Batson experiment. This re-interpretation of the results of the Darley-Batson experiment is the author own, but is in consistent with their interpretation of other FAE experiments.
