Question

Explain what is correspondence bias.

Answer 1

Correspondence bias (also called the fundamental attribution error) is the tendency to overemphasize personal or dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining other people’s behaviour.

For example, if someone cuts us off in traffic, we might think they are rude or aggressive (a personal trait) rather than considering they might be rushing due to an emergency (a situational reason).

This bias leads us to assume that people’s actions directly reflect their character, even when external circumstances play a major role.