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Your making what's known in social psychology as the Fundamental Attribution Error: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error http://en.wikiped
by metamemetics 17y ago
Your making what's known in social psychology as the Fundamental Attribution Error:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error
- AndrewHay 17y agoCan you enlighten us as to how he is making this error?
- metamemetics 17y agoWe are always biased to overestimate the component of behavior attributable to some intrinsic quality of the person. The classic example is Nazi Germany\The Holocaust. Everyone started asking how could the Germans commit so many horrible atrocities, it must be something intrinsic and Freudian about their personality maybe they have a strong need for discipline, etc. Then along comes Milgram and his famous electroshock study http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment , showing that Americans will perform actions even if they directly violate their internal beliefs, returning the primacy of behavior to the situation. It has been reproduced cross-culturally\many different times and variations. Another influential study is the Stanford Prison Experiments. Personally I still agree with the poster (samd) that everything is physical including brain states, and dualism is bonkers. But if we take that step, there is no longer a metaphysical ego holding personality. There is no distinction between individual and environment and the causality between the two is bidirectional, rendering the question moot.
- samd 17y agoThere is no distinction between individual and environment and the causality between the two is bidirectional, rendering the question moot. You are definitely on to something.
- a-priori 17y agoSee also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_neuroscience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_neuroscience
- rue 17y agoYou could just as well make the argument that such "violating internal beliefs" is actually the exposed core and that such beliefs are the veneer furnished by upbringing.
- berntb 17y agoAfaik, adoption studies support that psychopathy is inherited (to a large part) genetically.
- AndrewHay 17y agoAh yes, I see your point metamemetics, thanks. Which is the more leading cause of violent criminal behavior: circumstance or the person themselves? though, the rate of re offending seems to point towards the people themselves somewhat.
- samd 17y agoI don't think so, I haven't really made any claims about how much of their behavior is situational versus dispositional. I'm just saying that disposition plays some role.