Secular Psychology and the Sermon on the Mount

Have you heard of Fundamental Attribution Error?

In lay terms, when other people screw up, we assign blame (cause) to a character defect in them – laziness, carelessness, stupidity.  However, when we screw up, we tend to see the role circumstances played in our misstep.

• My alarm didn’t go off.
• I have a head cold.
• A coworker didn’t give me all the information.

From Wikipedia: In social psychology, the fundamental attribution error (FAE) is a cognitive attribution bias in which observers underemphasize situational and environmental factors for the behavior of an actor while overemphasizing dispositional or personality factors. In other words, observers tend to over-attribute the behaviors of others to their personality (e.g., he is late because he’s selfish) and under-attribute them to the situation or context (e.g., he is late because he got stuck in traffic).

Sound familiar?

I hope so because we all do it.  Giving grace to ourselves (and those we love) while judging others.

Along comes Jesus who says in Matthew 7,

“¹ Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Sound familiar?