Thursday, December 17, 2015

Church and the Fundamental Attribution Error

Psychology* describes the Fundamental Attribution Error as the error of attributing outcomes to circumstances and the individual in a biased way - with the bias tending to reflect individual self-esteem.  So my failures result from hard times, yours are because you are weak and ineffectual.

We are each others circumstances.

The gospel way, among other things, requires a reversal of the attributive, judging gaze.  Take the log from your own eye; give to (and forgive) others as you do yourself.  This is not a reflex - it is consciously acknowledging the FAE as an enabler of sin, and consciously redirecting that gaze.

In church, we need practices that reflect this reversed gaze and make us the circumstances of other people's best selves.  This means, for example, not frustrating or confusing each other, but listening and accepting as instructive the expectations of others.  It might mean finding some way to engage their bad behaviour that helps them stop it freely, without bad feeling.

*Well, some of it, at the moment.

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