Posted on January 11, 2022

"Cut people slack."

—Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

I always liked a phrase I learned from the Happiness Program, by the Art of Living Foundation: not see the intention behind other people’s mistakes. Wikipedia defines the fundamental attribution error as the tendency for people to under-emphasize situational and environmental explanations for an individual's observed behavior while over-emphasizing dispositional and personality-based explanations, or in plain English: we tend to speculate that others are always behaving with clear intentions that reflect their personality. Even more, there is another side on that same coin: we don’t do that to ourselves. What this means is that we tend to think others act deliberately, while we are allowed to react circumstantially (e.g. if someone speaks loudly over the phone in a public place they are rude, but if we do it is because we can’t listen well to this important call from our kid’s school—which makes it okay).

Even though I usually keep this in mind, it is true that sometimes it is easier to fall back to defaults and blame people without reason. I know I should be aware—or beware—of the fundamental attribution error, as it is not right nor fair with others. I must strive to cut people slack—always, and not just every so often— the way that I cut myself some slack.