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social cognition
You judge people by their actions but yourself by intent.
Jones and Nisbett (1971) proposed that actors tend to attribute their behavior to situational factors while observers attribute the same behavior to dispositional traits, though this effect has been shown to be weak or inconsistent in later research.
The original theory focused on situational versus dispositional attributions, not 'private intentions' versus 'the action itself'.
You expect grace for your intentions but offer none for results.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Jones and Nisbett (1971)
- What the check found
- The original study is correctly identified, but the claim ignores substantial subsequent research that failed to replicate the effect, framing it as an established universal rather than a contested hypothesis.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.