Women In The Film 'Situational Attribution Error'

The women in the film illustrated an example of situational Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) when she was mad at the man for eating her supposed salad. She thought the man thought it would be okay to eat her salad because he was hungry, even though she was the one who had made the mistake of sitting at the wrong table. She overestimated the man’s personality by assuming he was rude by eating “her” salad and underestimated the situation by automatically thinking the salad was hers. Additionally, the woman went against a social norm by eating the salad with the man who was a complete stranger. Infrequently does someone share the same food with someone the person does not know, so doing this was probably a big deal to her. She probably did
not feel comfortable, but she wanted to eat, so she did what she needed to do to eat. Furthermore, the woman displayed prejudice against the first black person she met. She got angry at him and did not want his help in picking up her spilled items even if it meant being late to her train. She probably assumed that he was going to do something bad just because he was black and that was her reasoning behind prohibiting from him helping her. This short film made me realize more about how blacks were treated. One thing that was bothersome to me was when she automatically started getting angry at the man who was trying to help her pick up her items. I did not know that some people were so prejudiced against the blacks. I knew the blacks were discriminated against, but this was an eye-opening example for me. I did not know such a helpful thing could be so disturbing to someone. Romans 12:10 tells us “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” We can be reminded that in God’s eyes there is no difference in race. We should treat others with love, just as God did to us.