Ultimate attribution error

Biological Parallel

When a chimpanzee from MY coalition attacks, group members attribute it to hunger, stress, or provocation (external). When a rival coalition member shows identical aggression, he's dispositionally violent—a permanent threat requiring preemptive attack. This asymmetry is adaptive: situational framing preserves coalition bonds (critical for survival), while dispositional framing of out-groups mobilizes coordinated defense. Jane Goodall documented this in the Gombe Chimpanzee War: former allies, after fissioning into two groups, reinterpreted the same behaviors through opposed lenses until one group annihilated the other. The bias persists in human organizations as departmental wars long after the original resource conflict resolves.