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Single Idea 24002

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / e. Character ]

Full Idea

We significantly overestimate the role of character traits in explaining and predicting people's action: the so-called Fundamental Attribution error.

Gist of Idea

We over-estimate the role of character traits when explaining behaviour

Source

Peter Goldie (The Emotions [2000], 6 'Traits')

Book Ref

Goldie,Peter: 'The Emotions' [OUP 2002], p.152

A Reaction

I think this point is incredibly important in daily life. 'When someone shows you who they are, believe them!' is a good thought. But we must distinguish the deeply revealing moment from the transient superficial one.

Related Idea

Idea 15701 Nouns seem to invoke stable kinds more than predicates do [Gelman]

The 34 ideas from Peter Goldie

23966 The personal view can still be objective, so I call sciences 'impersonal', rather than objective [Goldie]
23967 Some emotions are direct responses, and neither rational nor irrational [Goldie]
23968 If reasons are seen impersonally (as just causal), then feelings are an irrelevant extra [Goldie]
23969 We have feelings of which we are hardly aware towards things in the world [Goldie]
23970 Emotions are not avocado pears, with a rigid core and changeable surface [Goldie]
23971 Emotional thought is not rational, but it can be intelligible [Goldie]
23978 'Having an emotion' differs from 'being emotional' [Goldie]
23979 Emotional responses can reveal to us our values, which might otherwise remain hidden [Goldie]
23976 If we have a 'feeling towards' an object, that gives the recognition a different content [Goldie]
23975 Learning an evaluative property like 'dangerous' is also learning an emotion [Goldie]
23977 When actions are performed 'out of' emotion, they appear to be quite different [Goldie]
23973 Unlike moods, emotions have specific objects, though the difference is a matter of degree [Goldie]
23974 Emotional intentionality as belief and desire misses out the necessity of feelings [Goldie]
23972 A long lasting and evolving emotion is still seen as a single emotion, such as love [Goldie]
23980 It is best to see emotions holistically, as embedded in a person's life narrative [Goldie]
23982 If emotions are 'towards' things, they can't be bodily feelings, which lack aboutness [Goldie]
23983 We call emotions 'passions' because they are not as controlled as we would like [Goldie]
23984 An emotion needs episodes of feeling, but not continuously [Goldie]
23999 Emotional control is hard, but we are responsible for our emotions over long time periods [Goldie]
23994 Emotions are not easily changed, as new knowledge makes little difference, and akrasia is possible [Goldie]
23998 Emotional control is less concerned with emotional incidents, and more with emotional tendencies [Goldie]
23995 Akrasia can be either overruling our deliberation, or failing to deliberate [Goldie]
23993 Our capabilities did not all evolve during the hunter gathering period [Goldie]
23985 A basic emotion is the foundation of a hierarchy, such as anger for types of annoyance [Goldie]
23986 Early Chinese basic emotions: joy, anger, sadness, fear, love, disliking, and liking [Goldie]
23992 Some Aborigines have fifteen different words for types of fear [Goldie]
23991 Cross-cultural studies of facial expressions suggests seven basic emotions [Goldie]
24000 Justifying reasons say you were right; excusing reasons say your act was explicable [Goldie]
24001 Moods can focus as emotions, and emotions can blur into moods [Goldie]
24003 Character traits are both possession of and lack of dispositions [Goldie]
24002 We over-estimate the role of character traits when explaining behaviour [Goldie]
24004 Psychologists suggest we are muddled about traits, and maybe they should be abandoned [Goldie]
24005 We know other's emotions by explanation, contagion, empathy, imagination, or sympathy [Goldie]
24006 Empathy and imagining don't ensure sympathy, and sympathy doesn't need them [Goldie]