Fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias)

Biological Parallel

Ravens tracking wolves face a critical attribution problem: Is that limp an injury (intrinsic weakness = death and food soon) or a thorn in the paw (transient situation)? Ravens who overweight dispositional explanations trail healthy wolves for days, starving while waiting for a meal that never comes. Natural selection ruthlessly penalizes misattribution—successful ravens assess both the wolf AND its recent terrain. Humans inherited identical neural circuitry but misapply it catastrophically in organizations: we fire 'low performers' from toxic systems instead of diagnosing the environment they're navigating.