The Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is the tendency to overestimate the role of personal dispositions (character, intentions, personality) and underestimate the role of situational factors when explaining other people's behaviour. First described by Lee Ross (1977), it is one of the most replicated findings in social psychology and explains why we judge others more harshly than circumstances warrant, while explaining our own failures situationally.
Hanlon's Razor is the heuristic "never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance, incompetence, or error." It is a practical application of Occam's Razor to attributions of human intent — directing us to prefer the simpler explanation (mistake) over the more loaded one (bad faith) when both are plausible. Named after Robert J. Hanlon, it counteracts the Fundamental Attribution Error in interpersonal and organisational contexts.
The Just-World Hypothesis is a cognitive bias where individuals believe that actions always have morally predictable consequences—that "good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people." Formalized by Melvin Lerner in the 1960s, this mental model explains the psychological root of victim-blaming, the "hustle culture" myth of pure meritocracy, and our deep resistance to accepting the role of luck in success. Understanding the Just-World Hypothesis allows decision-makers to build fairer organizational systems and more accurately diagnose the systemic causes of failure.
Self-Serving Bias is a cognitive distortion where individuals attribute their successes to internal personal factors (like talent or hard work) while blaming their failures on external situational factors (like bad luck or unfair systems). Formalized by Miller and Ross in 1975, this mental model explains why CEOs take credit for bull markets but blame "macro headwinds" for losses, and why students believe an 'A' grade reflects intelligence while an 'F' reflects a "bad teacher." Mastering the Self-Serving Bias is essential for honest post-mortems and building cultures of genuine accountability.