Fundamental attribution error
Etymology
The phrase was coined by psychologist Lee Ross in 1977, building on a 1967 experiment by Edward Jones and Victor Harris. Later research complicated the "fundamental" label: the bias is weaker or even reversed in many East Asian cultures, which lean more on situational explanations, so many psychologists now prefer the narrower term "correspondence bias." The core insight — that we underweight the situation when judging others — survives, but it is less universal than the original name implied.
noun · /fun-duh-MEN-tul at-trib-YOO-shun ER-ur/
The tendency to explain other people’s behavior by their character while explaining our own by circumstance.
What it names
Why the driver who cuts you off is "a jerk" but your own bad driving is "a rough day," distorting how we judge nearly everyone.
Example
Blaming the whole team’s missed deadline on laziness was a fundamental attribution error; the real culprit was a broken handoff no one owned.
Related idea
The self-serving bias explains why we flip the logic for ourselves — crediting our wins to skill and blaming our losses on circumstance.