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attribution error
You judge the actions of your group more leniently.
When a member of your own group fails, you attribute it to bad luck; when an outsider fails, you attribute it to their incompetence.
This is the ultimate attribution error. It protects your tribal identity by creating a double standard for behavior. You rationalize the mistakes of your 'in-group' while applying rigid standards to those outside it.
You are blind to the flaws that you have already forgiven.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Pettigrew (1979), ultimate attribution error
- What the check found
- The claim accurately captures the behavior-specific component of Pettigrew's (1979) theory. While it omits the success-side of the bias, the description of failure-attribution is correct.
- 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.