What describes the fundamental attribution error?

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The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to explain others' actions by internal traits or dispositions rather than by external situational factors. In other words, we often think someone acted a certain way because of who they are, not because of the circumstances they were in. This makes “attributing behavior to dispositional factors” the best description.

For example, if a coworker delivers a sloppy report, you might label them as careless or unprofessional instead of considering possible situational factors like time pressure, unclear instructions, or competing priorities.

By contrast, attributing behavior to situational factors would mean you blame the circumstances for the behavior, which is the opposite of this bias. And confusing correlation with causation is a different kind of error altogether, not about how we explain people’s actions.