Out-group failures are attributed to character and successes to luck, with the reverse for one's own group.
Pettigrew's 1979 formulation, and the group-level version of the fundamental attribution error. The asymmetry is the finding: the same behaviour gets opposite explanations depending on group membership.
In practice
- A rival department's missed deadline proves they are disorganised; the same department's early delivery was because the work was easy.
- A supporter explains his own club's foul as a misjudged tackle and the identical challenge by the opposition as cynical.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind