TheUPside Podcast
Fundamental Attribution Error Explained: Why We Excuse Ourselves and Judge Others
When you're late, it's because traffic was terrible. When someone else is late, it's because they don't respect your time. In this episode of TheUPside Podcast, Theresa Flood unpacks one of the most common habits that quietly damages relationships at work and at home: we give ourselves context, but we give other people labels. Theresa explains the fundamental attribution error, the tendency to explain our own behavior through our circumstances while judging others by their character. Because other people's context is invisible to us, we fill in the blanks with stories, and those stories turn into labels that shape how we treat people. Drawing from her experience teaching the Six Types of Working Genius, Theresa shares how often we mistake someone's natural wiring for laziness, negativity or a lack of care. She offers one simple question that can shift you from judgment to curiosity: what else could be true? In this episode you'll learn: ✓ What the fundamental attribution error is and how it shows up in everyday life ✓ How behavior gets turned into identity, and why only the behavior is a fact ✓ Why we tend to moralize our differences instead of getting curious ✓ A three question practice to separate fact from fiction ✓ Why extending the benefit of the doubt comes back to you Whether you lead a team, run a business or are raising a teenager, this conversation will help you trade a little certainty for curiosity and a little judgment for grace.
