Question

When Douglas, an employee at Donovan Corp, was unable to complete a project on time, his manager, Tyler, assumed that Douglas missed the deadline because he was insincere. Douglas could not meet the deadline because his computer was infected with malware. In this scenario, Tyler's perception of Douglas represents a _____
A) Selective attribution error
B) Defensive bias
C) Self-serving bias
D) Fundamental attribution error

Answer 1

Answer: D) Fundamental attribution error

Explanation:

Fundamental attribution error is defined as the error that occurs due to regarding the situation explanation less for a person's behavior that is observed and highlighting the behavior that is observed in personality-oriented explanation.

According to the situation mentioned in question, Douglas's manager is emphasizing on the personality factor that he is insincere as he was not able to complete work before deadline but is not able to consider the situational explanation of computer system defect.This shows Tyler is creating fundamental attribution error.

Other option are incorrect because defensive bias. bias on self serving and selective attribution error don not occur due to observation based on situational explanation and personality explanation.Thus, the correct option is option(D).